The Ahmedabad king Sultan Mahmood-III (1538–1554) ordered its construction to defend the city from the frequent attacks that had devastated it.

A Portuguese traveller named Barbosa during his visit to Gujarat in 1514 described Surat as a city of great trade in all classes of merchandise, a very important seaport yielding a large revenue to the king, and frequented by many ships from Malabar and many other ports.

Surat reportedly suffered from a wholly unprovoked, and piratical raid, in 1530, a second time by the Portuguese under the leadership of Antonio da Silvaria.

The Ahmedabad king Sultan Mahmud Shah III (1538–1554), who was very much annoyed by these frequent destruction of Surat, ordered a very strong castle and endowed Safi Agha, a Turkish soldier who had been ennobled with the title of Khudawand Khan with a substantial budget for the work.

The king wanted to build the castle very strong that's why all the component units of masonry were bonded or fastened together with iron strips and the joints were filled-in by pouring the melted lead.