It was constructed in 1794 during the first British occupation of the Cape on land belonging to Coridon van Ceylon, a Vryezwarten (freed Black Muslim slave).

[1] Coridon's daughter, Saartjie van de Kaap, inherited the property that was being used as a warehouse, and donated it for the use as South Africa's first mosque.

It is the first mosque to observe public prayers and is where Cape Muslim traditions and the Arabic-Afrikaans language were first taught.

Tuan Guru also used the mosque as a madrassah, or "religious" school, where he instructed both children and adults in matters of Islam.

After Guru's death, Saartjie van de Kaap's husband, Achmad of Bengal, assumed the position of imam.