To surmount this problem, a number of translators were assigned to each lecturer and asked to translate the lecture while it was being delivered. It was a most curious situation; a hundred Egyptian students from al-Azhar who knew only Arabic and who had never received any training but in Arabic grammar, Koranic Exegesis, Fikh, etc. gathered together in order to be trained in medical and scientific subjects of which they had not the slightest idea by a number of European teachers who did not know the language of their students and who themselves were not homogenous [four being French, three Italians, a Spaniard], a Piedmontese and . . . a Bavarian.

QUESTION: This early simultaneous-translation arrangement predates modern conference interpreting history, which usually credits Nuremberg (1940s). Worth chasing whether this is an underacknowledged precursor.

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1086