Some non-Muslim scholars reject all hadith

Hadith

The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....

 as fabrications, which colors their views. Others, like Wilferd Madelung

Wilferd Madelung

Wilferd Ferdinand Madelung is a scholar of Islam. He was born in Stuttgart, Germany, where he completed his early education at Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium....

, accept the hadith literature. A few of them, like Lammens, hold a negative view of Ali. Madelung criticizes this school of thought and, like many other non-Muslim Islamic scholars, praised Ali.

Hadith

Some other Islamic Scholars do not accept narrations collected in later periods, and only study the early collections of narrations. This leads them to regard certain reported events as inauthentic or irrelevant.

Among events that these scholars reject on the grounds that they are not included in what they call "early sources" (meaning, essentially, the Sirat Rasul Allah of Muhammad ibn Ishaq) include:

• Ali was prominent in the battlefield of Uhud
  Battle of Uhud
  The Battle of Uhud was fought on March 19, 625 at the valley located in front of Mount Uhud, in what is now northwestern Arabia. It occurred between a force from the Muslim community of Medina led by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and a force led by Abu Sufyan ibn Harb from Mecca, the town from...
  
   and was wounded there seventeen times.

• In 9 A.H. (630 CE), Muhammad prepared to lead an expedition against Syria. This was the well-known expedition of Tabuk. He left Ali behind in charge of Madinah, saying

"Will you not be pleased that you will be to me like Aaron

Aaron

In the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, Aaron : Ααρών ), who is often called "'Aaron the Priest"' and once Aaron the Levite , was the older brother of Moses, and a prophet of God. He represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites...

 to Moses

Moses

Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

? But there will be no prophet after me." .

• That this was the only battle Muhammad engaged in without Ali at his side.

Wilferd Madelung

Wilferd Madelung

Wilferd Ferdinand Madelung is a scholar of Islam. He was born in Stuttgart, Germany, where he completed his early education at Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium....

 has rejected the stance of indiscriminately dismissing everything not included in "early sources". He wrote in the preface to his book The Succession to Muhammad:

"work with the narrative sources, both those that have been available to historians for a long time and others that have been published recently, made it plain that their wholesale rejection as late fiction is unjustified and that with [not without] a judicious use of them a much more reliable and accurate portrait of the period can be drawn than has so far been realized."

Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...

Sir William Muir

Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān,Jibrān Khalīl Jibrān, or Jibrān Xalīl Jibrān; Arabic , January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) also known as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer...

Dr. Henry Stubbe

Robert Durey Osborn

Washington Irving

Washington Irving

Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...

Simon Ockley

Simon Ockley

Simon Ockley was a British Orientalist.-Biography:Ockley was born at Exeter. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1697, MA. in 1701, and B.D. in 1710. He became fellow of Jesus College and vicar of Swavesey, and in 1711 was chosen Adams Professor of Arabic in the...

Philip Khuri Hitti

Philip Khuri Hitti

Philip Khuri Hitti ,, born in Shimlan, Ottoman Syria, now modern day Lebanon), was a scholar of Islam and introduced the field of Arab culture studies to the United States. He was of Maronite Christian religion....

Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...

Gerald de Gaury

Gerald de Gaury

Gerald de Gaury MC was a British military officer, Arabist, explorer, historian and diplomat.He served as part of the Hampshire Regiment in the First World War, where he was wounded on several occasions, including in the Gallipoli Campaign....

Gerald opines that Ali was to be forever the paragon of Muslim nobility and chivalry .

Charles Mills

Charles Mills (1788)

Charles Mills was an English scholar.He was one of the leading historians of his time and among the books he wrote were:*History of the Crusades for the Recovery and Possession of the Holy Land*History of Mohammedanism...

Leone Caetani

Leone Caetani

Leone Caetani , Duke of Sermoneta , was an Italian scholar, politician and historian of the Middle-East....

In his Annali dell'Islam Caetani levels severe criticisms against Ali's personality and policies. Madelung

Madelung

Madelung may refer to:* Erwin Madelung German physicist** Madelung constant chemical energy of an ion in a crystal* Georg Hans Madelung German aeronautical engineer* Otto Wilhelm Madelung German surgeon...

 in his Succession has provided a detailed critical analysis of these criticisms.

Lammens

Lammens describes Ali as "dull-witted and incapable" in Scripta Pontificii Instituti Biblici 

Maxime Rodinson

Maxime Rodinson

Maxime Rodinson was a French Marxist historian, sociologist and orientalist. He was the son of a Russian-Polish clothing trader and his wife who both died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. After studying oriental languages, he became a professor of Ethiopian at EPHE...

, a contemporary of Lammens, and a biographer of Muhammad, characterized Lammens as "filled with a holy contempt for Islam, for its 'delusive glory', and 'lascivious' prophet."

Some modern authors feel Lammens has yet to be refuted . Wilferd Madelung

Wilferd Madelung

Wilferd Ferdinand Madelung is a scholar of Islam. He was born in Stuttgart, Germany, where he completed his early education at Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium....

 in his work "The Succession to Muhammad" provided a detailed critical analysis of Lammens' criticisms.

Dante

DANTE

Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...

In the Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature...

, Dante describes in Inferno XXVIII that both Ali and Muhammad were in the 8th (and second harshest) Circle of Hell, as sowers of dissent: