Voltaire, the pen name of François-Marie Arouet, was one of the central writers and public intellectuals of the European Enlightenment. Born in Paris in 1694, he became famous as a poet, dramatist, historian, philosopher, satirist, and critic of religious intolerance and political oppression. His long career included plays, verse, histories, essays, philosophical tales, polemics, and correspondence, making him one of the most prolific and influential figures of eighteenth-century European letters.Best known today for works such as Candide, Letters on England, Zadig, Micromégas, and his many essays on toleration, reason, and civil liberty, Voltaire was also a major dramatist in his own time. His tragedies drew on classical French theatrical form while engaging contemporary questions about religion, authority, fanaticism, conquest, and human suffering. Alzire reflects his interest in moral drama shaped by political and religious conflict, using the stage to question domination and to argue for a more humane understanding of power. Voltaire died in 1778, leaving an enduring legacy as one of the defining voices of Enlightenment literature and thought.