Editing Dhimmi (section)

===Administration of law===
Religious pluralism existed in medieval Islamic law and [[Islamic ethics|ethics]]. The religious laws and courts of other religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism, were usually accommodated within the Islamic legal framework, as exemplified in the [[Caliphate]], [[Al-Andalus]], [[Ottoman Empire]] and Indian subcontinent.<ref name="Weeramantry-138">{{cite book|last=Weeramantry|first=Judge Christopher G.|title=Justice Without Frontiers: Furthering Human Rights|year=1997|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|isbn=978-90-411-0241-6|page=138}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism|first=Abdulaziz Abdulhussein|last=Sachedina|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-513991-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/islamic_sac_2001_00_4172}}</ref> In medieval Islamic societies, the qadi (Islamic judge) usually could not interfere in the matters of non-Muslims unless the parties voluntarily chose to be judged according to Islamic law. The dhimmi communities living in Islamic states usually had their own laws independent from the Sharia law, such as the Jews who had their own Halakha courts.<ref>{{cite book|title=Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages|author=Mark R. Cohen|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|year=1995|isbn=978-0-691-01082-3|page=74|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fgbib5exskUC&q=cohen+Under+Crescent+and+Cross|access-date=10 April 2010|author-link=Mark R. Cohen}}</ref>

Dhimmis were allowed to operate their own courts following their own legal systems. However, dhimmis frequently attended the Muslim courts in order to record property and business transactions within their own communities. Cases were taken out against Muslims, against other dhimmis and even against members of the dhimmi's own family. Dhimmis often took cases relating to marriage, divorce or inheritance to the Muslim courts so these cases would be decided under sharia law. Oaths sworn by dhimmis in the Muslim courts were sometimes the same as the oaths taken by Muslims, sometimes tailored to the dhimmis' beliefs.<ref name="al-Qattan-99 2">al-Qattan (1999)</ref>

Muslim men could generally marry dhimmi women who are considered People of the Book, however Islamic jurists rejected the possibility any non-Muslim man might marry a Muslim woman.<ref>Al-Mawardi (2000), p. 161; Friedmann (2003), p. 161; Lewis (1984), p. 27.</ref> Bernard Lewis notes that "similar position existed under the laws of Byzantine Empire, according to which a Christian could marry a Jewish woman, but a Jew could not marry a Christian woman under pain of death".<ref name="Lewis 1984, p. 27"/>