Ibn Verga himself says that he was sent by the Spanish communities to collect money for the ransom of the prisoners of Málaga (Shebeṭ Yehudah, § 64.
He gives various reasons, among them being the superiority of the Jews ("whom the Lord loves He chastens": Proverbs 3:12), and chiefly their separation from the Christians in matters of food; their troubles were also a punishment for their sins.
[9] At the end of paragraph 64 Ibn Verga says that he wrote a work entitled Shebeṭ 'Ebrato, containing persecution narratives and some rabbinical treatises, now lost.
Loeb holds that, though an original writer, Ibn Verga is not always trustworthy, and that some of his material belongs really in the domain of legend.
A Yiddish translation, with additions (Shebeṭ Yehudah ha-Shalem), was published in Wilna, 1900. Corrections to the text of M. Wiener are given by Loeb in Revue des études juives 17 p87.