[6] Due to its geographic location and cultural history, Sudan has been hosting a steady flow of people from neighbouring countries, who were either in pursuit of religious knowledge or were on their way to perform the hajj pilgrimage.

According to the university's website, it was set up by "a number of scholars ... with popular effort",[10] while outside sources credit funding to Saudi Arabia and other Arab States of the Persian Gulf, and management by the Islamist National Islamic Front of Sudan.

Political scientist Gilles Kepel has described it as having been created "to train preachers and young elites from French and English-speaking African countries" and to "imbue them with the Salafist view of Islam."

Kepel describes the center as "richly endowed by the Gulf States" and "headed" by a National Islamic Front party member "from 1979 on".

According to the university's website, the Institute/Centre began by "accepting African students at the intermediate and secondary levels" from 1977-1979 onwards, before "this project was stopped".

Their representatives "formed the Centre’s board of trustees" (the institute's highest authority) and "drew a statute which was approved by the Government of the Sudan and ratified by the founding states".

[10] The Government of the Sudan granted the centre a "big plot of land and the president of the Republic gave it diplomatic immunities and privileges" which helped it to develop and progress quickly.

[10] But in 1405 AH (1984-5) the Centre’s activity was curtailed after some member states "failed to pay their [promised] contributions", and the budget had to be cut at the same time that the two colleges were being established.

[13] Human Rights Watch notes that among other activities it provided "religious and cultural orientation programs" for prisoners of war in Sudan.

[18] In April 2011, the Vice-Chancellor of the university at that time, Professor Hassan Mekki, met the Islamic Relief Agency Secretary General, Adnan Bin Khalil Al-Basha in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

These courses include: Arabic is the medium of instruction in the faculties of economics, arts, law, education and shariah, and centres of the university on the bachelor degree level.