Two essays are combined: an essay on the philosophy (and theology) of the learned twelfth-century Rabbi, and opponent of the Karaites, and another on his surviving writings, concentrating largely on his commentaries on the Hebrew Bible., with an account of the commentaries written on Ibn Ezra by other rabbis, and of the surviving manuscripts. Ibn Ezra was an outstanding advocate of reading Scripture in the literal sense, rather than allegorically. His writings have often been read as hinting that the Pentateuch was not entirely written by Moses, since parts of it address much later events; Friedländer does not hesitate to contest this view.. There is a substantial appendix of extracts in the original Hebrew.