Non-Muslim view of Ali

Some non-Muslim scholars reject all hadith as fabrications, which colors their views. Others, like Wilferd Madelung, 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.
Reservations
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 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 to Moses? But there will be no prophet after me.".
*That this was the only battle Muhammad engaged in without Ali at his side.
Wilferd Madelung 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 a judicious use of them a much more reliable and accurate portrait of the period can be drawn than has so far been realized."
Views
Positive
Gerald de Gaury opines that Ali was to be forever the paragon of Muslim nobility and chivalry.
Negative
Henri Lammens describes Ali as "dull-witted and incapable".
Maxime Rodinson, 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 in his work "The Succession to Muhammad" provided a detailed critical analysis to Lammens' criticisms.

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