[citation needed] The city was founded in the mid to late 1960s when six brothers from the Boroumand family decided that it was more economical for them to transform the 40 million square meter (10,000 acre) Amirabad farm that they had inherited from their father, Agha Muḥammad Khān Boroumand, from agricultural usage to a mix of residential development and agricultural usage.

The main drivers for this decision were the proximity of their farm to Esfahan, the availability of plentiful water from the "qanat", or underground canal system that their father had salvaged and upgraded during his lifetime, and the demand for affordable housing.

[7] To further attract residents, the Boroumand brothers gifted over 2 million square meters (500 acres) of land in close proximity to the city to the Daneshgah Sanati Esfahan, Isfahan University of Technology (IUT), and gifted another 2 million square meters (500 acres) of land in the city to the Iranian government with the understanding that the government would build a manufacturing facility there (a helicopter manufacturing plant which was to have been built there prior to the Iranian Revolution, is now home to the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA.))

Shahinshahr is renowned in Iran for its excellent educational facilities and system, ranking 2nd in the whole country, a legacy of the first class schools originally built.

The majority of the population is from a middle-class background, and work in a range of industries including military, refineries, aerospace production as well as typical office and retail jobs.