According to Sambari's own testimony, Iskandari's rich library aroused in him an intense curiosity in history, and later on he made extensive use of it in writing his works.
Sambari's main sources for his works were "Yuḥasin" by Abraham Zacuto, "Shevet Yehudah" by Solomon Ibn Virga, "Divrei ha-Yamim" by Joseph ha-Kohen, "Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah" by Gedaliah Ibn Yahya, "Kore ha-Dorot" by David Conforte, and "Seder Eliyahu Zuta" by Elijah Capsali.
[4] Another obscure work of Sambari, Porat Yosef (פורת יוסף) is only extant in a unique manuscript in the Alliance Israélite Universelle library.
[4] Considered to be Sambari's magnum opus, his work Divrei Yosef ("ספר דברי יוסף", The Book of Joseph’s Sayings) was completed on January 23, 1673.
Of particular interest, Sambari provides important accounts of the military conquests of Mehmed II, Selim I and Suleyman I, and their role in the campaigns against the Safavids and Mamluks.