[4] Abudarham belonged to the class of writers who, in an age of decline, felt the need of disseminating in popular form the knowledge stored up in various sources of rabbinical literature.
In the preface he states that he desired to afford the people, whom he found lacking in knowledge, the means of using the liturgy intelligently, and for this purpose he collected, from both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmuds, from the Geonim and all the commentators down to his own time, the material for the explanation of each portion of the prayer-book.
The work started by Rashi and Meir of Rothenburg, and continued especially in France, Spain, and Germany during the 14th century,[5] found in Abudarham's profound spirituality and wise judgment a fitting conclusion and consummation.
The closing paragraph quite characteristically contains the rules regarding the cutting of nails, and ends by stating: "This book was completed in Seville in 5100 [1339 CE] after the Creation of the World, by Abudarham."
In the manner of an eclectic he frequently states, or suggests, many explanations for one fact; but a certain warmth of religious feeling pervades the whole book and makes it a harmonious unit, giving it an edifying, rather than a merely legal, character.
The first edition appeared in Lisbon in 1489 (which was reprinted in Morocco as the first printed book in Africa[7]); the second in Constantinople in 1513; the third and fourth in Venice in 1546 and 1566 respectively; the fifth in Amsterdam in 1726 (in this a portion of the calendar was omitted); the sixth and seventh in Prague in 1784 and 1817 respectively; the eighth in Lviv in 1857; and the ninth in Warsaw in 1877.