After the Prophet Muhammad, the most contested figure in Islamic history would be his son-in-law, ‘Ali b. Abi Talib. Within a few centuries of his death, ‘Ali became a respected authority in both Sunni and Shi‘i Islam, with the latter tradition primarily dedicated to his legacy. However, his nearly universal portrayal in Muslim literature as a pious authority obscures a centuries-long process of contestation and rehabilitation. This paper considers the methods that Sunni hadith specialists employed to reconcile expectations regarding ‘Ali’s character and image in Sunnism with the vast number of disparate accounts about him. As a sect, Sunnism encompasses Muslims who doctrinally differ from one another considerably on the subject of ‘Ali and the ahl al-bayt. For example, a few prominent Hanbalis rejected Sufi veneration of the Prophet’s relatives and hagiographical literature glorifying them. Sunnis with competing theological commitments, whether to pro-‘Alid sentiment or anti-Shi‘i polemics dealt with the early source material differently. Pro-‘Alids consistently accepted and transmitted hadith that exalted ‘Ali, while early ‘Uthmaniyya and pro-Umayyads depicted him and his followers as a scourge in the community and the source of sedition. Beginning in the ninth century, the compilers of Sunni hadith literature faced a great challenge in sifting through these conflicting narratives. How did they reconcile early portrayals of ‘Ali with their own vision of early Islamic history and what constituted orthodoxy? Although these authors are portrayed as engaging in this selective process with an air of objectivity by simply relying on narrators who were trustworthy and avoiding those who were not, the reality was much more complex. Hadith scholars clearly judged reports by their contents even when they cited problems in the chain of transmission as principal reasons for their negative assessment. When confronting a hadith that was understood to be anti-’Alid or too zealously pro-‘Alid authors utilized their editorial privilege in at least seven different ways to revise it. They include the partial or complete omission of controversial material, obfuscation of the identities of key figures, charitably reinterpreting events, the circulation of counter reports and a few other methods. This study examines hermeneutical techniques scholars utilized in the transmission and reception of hadith about ‘Ali.