After Maimonides' death the manuscript remained in the hands of the family in Egypt for several generations. In 1375, due to the persecution of Jews in Egypt, the descendants of Maimonides moved to Aleppo in Syria.

The Mishnah Commentary remained in the hands of the family in Aleppo along with other precious manuscripts for several generations.  The family encouraged the Jews in Aleppo to make authorized copies of the manuscripts in the library.

 

With the arrival of the Jews who had been expelled from Spain in 1492, interest in Maimonides' writings declined, and the Spanish Jewish tradition of Kabbalah and mysticism started to flourish.  By the 17^th century the library’s contents had been dispersed.

In the 17^th century, when Christian scholars became interested in Hebrew manuscripts, three of the six volumes were purchased in Aleppo by European scholars and were later sold to the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

The other volumes remained in Aleppo, and then found their way to Damascus. There, two volumes were found in terrible condition; the Bodleian Library refused to buy them in this state. Luckily, they were purchased and conserved by the bibliophile Sassoon family from whom they were purchased by the National Library of Israel in 1975. 

The sixth volume of the Commentary written Maimonides' own hand is still missing, but perhaps will still surface one day.