[3] Firuz Shah fought against the Vijayanagara Empire on many occasions and the rivalry between the two dynasties continued unabated throughout his reign, with victories in 1398 and 1406, but a defeat in 1419.

At the beginning of his reign, Harihara II of the Vijayanagar Empire had advanced as far as the Raichur Doab and posed a threat to the Bahmanis.

Each year he sent ships from his kingdom’s two principal western seaports, Goa and Dabhol, to the Persian Gulf to recruit talented men of letters, administrators, soldiers, and artisans.

[citation needed] During the period of peace following the expedition, Firuz embarked on building a new city which was named Firozabad, a few kilometers south of Gulbarga.

[7][8] In 1406, Deva Raya I of the Vijayanagara empire attempted to kidnap a daughter of a Goldsmith from Mudgal due to the rejection of the marriage proposal.

Atlast, Deva Raya sued for peace and he was forced to give his daughter for marriage to Firuz Shah.

Firuz was trounced by Vijayanagar and he retreated, surrendering the southern and eastern districts of his kingdom.

[11] Ahmad, along with his son Alauddin and his supporters, fled the capital and was pursued by a force of three or four thousand horse, led by Hushyar and Bidar.

He was well versed in Quran and Islamic jurisprudence, took philosophical leanings in Sufism and proficient in several languages and took three days off in a week to give lectures on subjects like mathematics and Euclidean geometry.

He would also contract temporary marriages known in the Shi'ah doctrine as mutāh so as to not conflict with his strict Islamic observerence.