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The Black Stallion, known as the Black or Shêtân, is the title character from author Walter Farley's bestselling series about the Arab stallion and his young owner, Alec Ramsay. The series chronicles the story of a Sheikh's prized stallion after he comes into Alec's possession through a ship journey gone awry. Later books in the series furnish the Black's backstory. Shaytan (under various transliterations) is the Arabic word for "devil".
The first book in the series, published in 1941, is titled The Black Stallion. The subsequent novels are about the Black himself and the stallion's three main offspring: his firstborn colt, Satan; his second colt, Bonfire; and his firstborn filly, Black Minx. Along with the Black, the series introduces a second stallion that is considered the Black's only equal - The Island Stallion, Flame. This is a separate storyline until Flame and the Black meet in two books - The Black Stallion and Flame, and The Black Stallion Challenged. However, news of Flame's win in an international race in Cuba, and his mysterious disappearance, are mentioned at the end of The Black Stallion Mystery, which serves as the first introduction of this rival for the later books in which they meet.
The first two books, as well as the final book of the series, were adapted for the films The Black Stallion (1979), The Black Stallion Returns (1983), and The Young Black Stallion (2003).
The Black Stallion was described as "the most famous fictional horse of the century" by The New York Times.[1]