diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6bd9c59..1a32910 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 ## Changelog
 
+### [1.2.3] - 2022-08-27
+#### Fixed
+- fix support for cmake versions below 3.17
+
 ### [1.2.2] - 2022-08-25
 #### Changed
 - modernize cmake build to fix most conda-forge builds
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index f5524ff..caf1bb2 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -13,7 +13,14 @@ else()
     find_package(Python COMPONENTS Interpreter Development.Module REQUIRED)
 endif()
 
-if("${Python_INTERPRETER_ID}" STREQUAL "PyPy")
+if(CMAKE_VERSION VERSION_LESS 3.17)
+    execute_process(
+        COMMAND "${Python_EXECUTABLE}" -c
+                "import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_config_var('EXT_SUFFIX').split('.')[1])"
+        OUTPUT_VARIABLE Python_SOABI
+        OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE COMMAND_ECHO STDOUT)
+    message(STATUS "Corrected SOABI: ${Python_SOABI}")
+elseif("${Python_INTERPRETER_ID}" STREQUAL "PyPy")
     message(STATUS "PyPy SOABI: ${Python_SOABI}")
     execute_process(
         COMMAND "${Python_EXECUTABLE}" -c
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e554ccc..e5abea6 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ def show_message(*lines):
 
 setup_args = {
     "name": "jarowinkler",
-    "version": "1.2.2",
+    "version": "1.2.3",
     "url": "https://github.com/maxbachmann/JaroWinkler",
     "author": "Max Bachmann",
     "author_email": "pypi@maxbachmann.de",
diff --git a/src/jarowinkler/CMakeLists.txt b/src/jarowinkler/CMakeLists.txt
index 6fd48e4..95ad66c 100644
--- a/src/jarowinkler/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/jarowinkler/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -10,8 +10,21 @@ function(create_cython_target _name)
     endif()
 endfunction(create_cython_target)
 
+function(rf_add_library name)
+    if(CMAKE_VERSION VERSION_LESS 3.17)
+        Python_add_library(${name} MODULE ${ARGV})
+        get_property(suffix TARGET ${name} PROPERTY SUFFIX)
+        if (NOT suffix)
+            set (suffix "${CMAKE_SHARED_MODULE_SUFFIX}")
+        endif()
+        set_property (TARGET ${name} PROPERTY SUFFIX ".${Python_SOABI}${suffix}")
+    else()
+        Python_add_library(${name} MODULE WITH_SOABI ${ARGV})
+    endif()
+endfunction(rf_add_library)
+
 create_cython_target(_initialize_cpp)
-Python_add_library(_initialize_cpp MODULE WITH_SOABI ${_initialize_cpp})
+rf_add_library(_initialize_cpp ${_initialize_cpp})
 target_compile_features(_initialize_cpp PUBLIC cxx_std_14)
 target_include_directories(_initialize_cpp PRIVATE ${RF_CAPI_PATH} ${JW_BASE_DIR}/jarowinkler)
 target_link_libraries(_initialize_cpp PRIVATE jaro_winkler::jaro_winkler)
diff --git a/src/jarowinkler/__init__.py b/src/jarowinkler/__init__.py
index 71bba68..fad30f1 100644
--- a/src/jarowinkler/__init__.py
+++ b/src/jarowinkler/__init__.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 __author__: str = "Max Bachmann"
 __license__: str = "MIT"
-__version__: str = "1.2.2"
+__version__: str = "1.2.3"
 
 def _fallback_import(module: str, name: str):
     import importlib