Ahmad Shah I Wali in the context of "Bahmani Kingdom"

The Bahmani Kingdom, or the Bahmani Sultanate, was a late medieval Persianate kingdom that ruled the Deccan Plateau in India. The first independent Muslim sultanate of the Deccan, the Bahmani Kingdom came to power in 1347 during the rebellion of Ismail Mukh against Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the Sultan of Delhi. Ismail Mukh then abdicated in favour of Zafar Khan, who established the Bahmani Sultanate.

The Bahmani Kingdom was perpetually at war with its neighbours, including its rival to the south, the Vijayanagara Empire, which outlasted the sultanate. The Mahmud Gawan Madrasa was created by Mahmud Gawan, the vizier regent of the sultanate from 1466 until his execution in 1481, during a conflict between the foreign (Afaqis) and local (Deccanis) nobility. Bidar Fort was built by Ahmad Shah I (r. 1422–36), who relocated the capital to the city of Bidar. Ahmad Shah led campaigns against Vijayanagara and the sultanates of Malwa and Gujarat. His campaign against Vijayanagara in 1423 included a siege of the capital, ending in the expansion of the Sultanate. Mahmud Gawan would later lead campaigns against Malwa, Vijayanagara, and the Gajapatis, and extended the sultanate to its maximum extent.

Bidar Fort is located in the old city area, Bidar, Karnataka, India. The fort, the city and the district are all affixed with the name Bidar. Sultan Ahmad Shah I of the Bahmanid dynasty shifted his capital from Gulbarga to Bidar in 1427 and built his fort along with a number of Islamic monuments. There are over 30 monuments inside Bidar fort.

The complex was put by UNESCO on its "tentative list" to become a World Heritage Site in 2014, with others in the region, under the name Monuments and Forts of the Deccan Sultanate. The Bidar Fort has witnessed many historical milestones – the rise and fall of Bahmani dynasty, rise and separation of the five Deccan Sultans, capture by the Barid Shahi and Adil Shahi dynasties, and finally being won by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in the blockade of Bidar in 1657.

The siege of Vijayanagar or Bahmani–Vijayanagar war of 1423 was a military campaign by the Bahmani Sultanate in the Deccan Plateau, led by Ahmad Shah I Wali, against the Vijayanagar empire, ruled by Vira Vijaya Bukka Raya III, beginning in 1423 in present-day Karnataka. The campaign resulted in a victory for the Bahmanis, leading to the recapture of all of the Sultanate's territories that had fallen into the hands of Vijayanagar during the war of 1420.

After their triumph in the war with the Bahmanis in 1420, the Vijayanagar empire carried out a massacre of the civilian population, violating the treaty signed between them during the war of 1367. Following the coronation of Ahmad Shah Wali after the death of his brother Tajuddin Firuz Shah, Ahmad sought revenge for his brother's defeat by assembling an army. Vira Vijaya, the king of Vijayanagar, opposed them with a vast army, supported by Velama Chiefs. However, they were repelled from Tungabhadra, and at one point, the Vijayanagar king was taken as a prisoner of war, though he later managed to escape.