Arab city call — excellent (5)
I believe the answer is:
dubai
'arab city' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'call excellent' is the wordplay.
'call' becomes 'dub' (both can mean to name).
'excellent' becomes 'ai' (resembles 'A1', old-fashioned term for excellent).
'dub'+'ai'='DUBAI'
(Other definitions for dubai that I've seen before include "Persian Gulf emirate" , "capital and port" , "One of the UAE and its capital" , "Gulf city/state" , "Persian Gulf state" .)