4.45 metres (14.6 ft) in length and cast in bell metal, it is the largest surviving block of artillery from the Medieval period.

The cannon was cast in 1549 by the Persian engineer Muhammad Bin Husain Rumi, then serving Sultan Burhan Nizam Shah I of Ahmednagar.

[citation needed] In 1625, Prime Minister Malik Amber of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate transported the Malik–i-Maidan with the help of trained war elephants from Daulatabad Fort south to Sholapur, as part of his invasion of the Bijapur Sultanate.

[5] The cannon, among the world's largest in its category, was attempted to be moved to Great Britain by the East India Company as a war trophy, but due to its huge size and un-conditioned transport infrastructure the cannon could not be transported.

[9] The cannon's muzzle is decorated with a low relief of the head of a lion with its jaws open, swallowing an elephant.