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.

[4] 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 Fort was renovated in the 15th century by Sultan Ahmad Shah-I as he shifted his capital from Kalaburagi (Gulbarga) to Bidar.

[8] Geologically, Bidar district is predominantly Deccan Trap with underlying layers of gneiss emerging along the eastern boundary.

[9] The ancient capital Kalyani (Basavakalyan) of the Western Chalukya Empire is situated about 40 miles (64 km) to the west of Bidar.

[2] Under Ahmed Shah's rule, the old Fort was rebuilt,[6] and beautiful madrasas, mosques, palaces and gardens were raised.

[2] Nawab Mir Sa'id Muhammad Khan (also known as Salabath Jung), who was the third son of Asaf Jah I (the first Nizam of the dynasty), ruled from Bidar fort from 1751 to 1762, until his brother Mir Nizam Ali Khan, also known as Asaf Jah II, imprisoned him and later killed him in the fort on 16 September 1763.

[6] The present-day Bidar fortress was rebuilt using red laterite stone around the old fort in 1428 by Ahmed Shah Bahmani.

[citation needed] The fort walls measure 2.5 km (1.6 mi) on the outside,[9] and include within numerous buildings, arches, pavilions, mosques, gateways and gardens.

[2] To the north and east, steep cliffs provide natural protection to the moat and the glacis; elsewhere, facing Bidar city, from the south-east to the south-west, the walls are protected by a unique triple-channeled moat, described by Yazdani (1995) as follows:[9] The width of the moat between the glacis and the first partition wall is 32 feet 6 inches [9.91 m], between the first and second partition-walls 36 feet 4 inches, and between the second partition wall and the scarp 41 feet 9 inches [12.73 m].

Several smaller domes on the roof of the mosque remain hidden when viewed from below, due to the parapet wall.

The technology was brought to the Deccan by the Bahmani kings of the 15th century CE, the karez system was built by Bahmani kings in the 15th century in Naubad village in Bidar, in Gulbarga and Bijapur districts in Karnataka and also in Burhanpur district in Madhya Pradesh.The karez consists basically of a network underground canals, punctuated by vertical shafts to the surface, The karez taps into the groundwater sources (or natural springs) and transports it through the tunnel to the settlement, ending in a surface canal and/or pools in the village for various uses like drinking, washing, ablution, watering livestock, and also further used for irrigating fields, orchards and gardens.

The song "Ishq Sufiyaana" from the hit Bollywood film of 2011, The Dirty Picture was shot in the Bidar Fort.