The Saadi, who had come from Tagmadert in the valley of the Draa River, claim sharifian origins through an ancestor from Yanbu.

The family claims descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through the line of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatima Zahra (Muhammad's daughter).

The name Saadi or Saadian may derive from Arabic sa'ada meaning happiness or salvation.

Others think it derives from the name Bani Zaydan or that it was given to the Bani Zaydan (Sharif of Tagmadert) by later generations and rivals for power, who tried to deny their Hassanid descent by claiming that they came from the family of Halimah Saadiyya, Muhammad's wet nurse.

In any case, the Saadi have begun to render Sufism respectable in the Maghreb.

At the beginning of the reign of the Saadi Sultan Mohammed ash-Sheikh in 1554, he makes Marrakech his capital.