Romuald Zbigniew Landau (1899–1974) was an author, sculptor, Foreign Service officer, educator, art critic, book reviewer, and a specialist in Arab and Islamic cultures, with an especial interest in, and love for, Morocco. His literary and scholarly works had an enormous impact during his lifetime, but unfortunately he is less well-known these days than he should be. Landau’s was a fascinating life, well-lived, courageous, and dedicated, above all, to understanding.

Born in Lódz, Poland, Landau moved to Germany in 1918, establishing his literary career with Der Unbestechliche Minos (Minos the Incorruptible) (1925), before moving to the UK in 1927, where he wrote a bestseller, God is My Adventure(1935). Resident at Stoughton Manor, PO18 9JL, from the 1930s to the 1950s, and enthused about the ‘spirit of the valley’. Four of his books refer to his time in Stoughton in the 1930s and 1940s when he joined theRoyal Air Force Voluntary Reserve. In Of No Importance (1940), he describes how he discovered Stoughton and learnt about gardening. This work contains photographs of the exterior of the house and garden. He wrote warmly about the ‘spirit of the place’, confiding that ‘I find it difficult to define that hidden power’ (p. 18). Later he refers glowingly to the resident housekeeper as Mrs Boswell, but does not name his young German Jewish refugee gardener. They are named in the September 1939 census as Rosaline Boswell (b. 20/05/1878) and Wolf D. Zedner (b. 30/10/1918). The house evidently had no electricity.

Landau moved to the United States in the 1950s, and as Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of the Pacific in San Francisco from 1956 until his retirement in 1968, he established his reputation as a significant scholar of Islamic cultures in Africa and the Middle East. Landau first visited Morocco in 1924. This and subsequent travels in North Africa and the Middle East spurred his gradual development as a student of Islamic culture. He met King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia and King Abudullah I of Jordan, and in 1938 published Arm the Apostles, which related these adventures but also saw him advocate for forging anti-Nazi alliances between Arabs and France/the UK. Following his mainly biographical/ philosophical publications, Landau turned in the late 1940s/early 1950s to the writings about Morocco and Islam for which he is probably better known. These include Invitation to Morocco (1950), Moroccan Journal (1951), Portrait of Tangier (1952), and History of Morocco in the Twentieth Century* (1963). The 1950s saw his intense involvement with the USA Campaign for Morocco to regain its independence from France – a goal achieved in 1956, with the new ruler, King Mohammed V honouring Landau in 1957 by making him Commander of the Royal Moroccan Order Ouissam Alaouite. At the request of President John F. Kennedy, Landau took up the appointment of Educational Director preparing the first team of US Peace Corps Volunteers to Morocco. Fittingly, his final years were then spent in Marrakech, where he died in 1974, and was buried in the city’s Christian cemetery, where on 2nd March 2024 the Polish and British Embassies will hold events to mark the 50th anniversary of his death.

Ensuring that the important legacy of Landau’s rich life and work endures and is fully recognised has been my work over the past few years. In 2022, Madame Karen Gauthier-Landau, the widow of RL’s nephew the widow of Landau’s nephew in Paris, and others donated a collection of Landau’s works, including signed first editions, to the University of Portsmouth Library’s Special Collections. Landau spent time near Portsmouth, and his Hampshire connections make him an author worth celebrating in this city.