Who wrote the Mishneh Torah, the major 12th-century Jewish legal code?

Maimonides wrote the Mishneh Torah, the major 12th-century Jewish legal code.

Maimonides was born Moses ben Maimon in Córdoba around 1138 and is also known by the Hebrew acronym Rambam. He composed the Mishneh Torah in Hebrew, organizing Jewish law across fourteen books and covering subjects ranging from prayer and festivals to civil law, ritual purity, and sacrifices.

The work aimed to make the extensive legal discussions of the Talmud accessible in a clear, systematic code. Maimonides did not usually cite the individual Talmudic passages behind each ruling, which made the code practical but also prompted debate among later scholars.

Maimonides was also a physician, philosopher, and communal leader. His philosophical work Guide for the Perplexed became highly influential, while his legal writings shaped Jewish study and practice. The Mishneh Torah should not be confused with Joseph Karo’s later sixteenth-century code, the Shulchan Aruch.