The Annual Review of Islam in South Africa (ARISA) was launched in 1998, and became a widely respected source on Islam in South Africa. Graduate students, especially those working at UCT, were closely involved in the entire production. Aslam Farouk-Allie, Shaheed Mathee and Susanna Molins-Lliteras, in particular, left their mark on the review.

In 2012, the CCI begun its annual publication of the review, and Andrea Brigaglia took over as a new editor, renaming it ARIA (Annual Review of Islam in Africa). Since then, ARIA has included contributions on all regions of the African continent. The publication is currently available in print and PDF format. ARIA is also indexed in the ATLA Religion Database® a product of the American Theological Library Association. The last edition of ARIA was published in 2020 and was edited by Muhammed Haron (University of Botswana) from 2017 - 2020. 

The publication included new pieces of research from different disciplinary backgrounds from within the human sciences (Islamic Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, History, Political Science, Music, African Literature and Arts) that focus on aspects of Muslim religious culture in African spaces. Case-studies on developments related to Islam in North, West, Central, East and South Africa were also included. ARIA published short articles of about 2000-2500 words, but longer were also occasionally be accommodated.  Postgraduate students were also welcome to submit the findings of their research to be considered as articles to appear in ARIA.  

The publications followed the ARIA style-sheet and closely followed it for guidelines on end-notes, referencing, etc.