The Influence of Islamic Culture on Maimonides in the Development of Mishnah’s Legislation

Maimonides, as a jurist, aimed to develop the Mishnah's legislations; so, he wrote his book Mishnah Torah, which included the Mishnah's legislations, and added to it legislations to fill the gap in provisions cf the Mishnah. Maimonides used the books cf the rabbinic heritage to complete this deficiency in the legislation. He reclassified these legislations ohjective'y in his book Mishnah Torah, which he wrote in Egypt in 1117 AD, according to the method cf Islamic jurisprudence books and Al-Muhalla by Ibn Hazm in particular. The current paper discusses the classification and division cf the Mishnah and the Mishnah Torah, in order to find out the legislations that Maimonides added to the Mishnah. Also, it clarifies Maimonides' motive for authoring Mishnah Torah. Additionally, this paper illustrates how the Islamic culture influenced on the classification and division of the Mishnah Torah according to the subject. Clearly, Maimonides was influenced in his book Mishnah Torah by Islamic jurisprudence and the book cflbn Hazm; Al-Muhalla in particular. He reclassifled some legislations in Mishnah Torah objectively according to a method cf Islamic jurisprudence books.