Due to lack of written documents, the history of this mausoleum remained mysterious for a long time. It is mentioned for the first time in the inventory of monuments made by the students of the Bardo Military School in the middle of the 19th century. According to an epigraphic inscription on the front door, it was built in 1738. Some researchers mention that the prayer room was built even before the rest of the monument, during the Zirids reign (between the 11th and 12th centuries). Initially conceived as a simple oratory, it was transformed in 1863 into a mausoleum named after a local Muslim saint, Sidi Saada Kanoun. Since that date, the monument serves as the headquarters of the Sufi brotherhood of Aïssawa.
