Arab people surrounded by endless sand (7)
I believe the answer is:
saracen
'arab' is the definition.
(Saracen is an example)
'people surrounded by endless sand' is the wordplay.
'people' becomes 'race'.
'surrounded by' indicates putting letters inside.
'endless' means to remove the last letter.
'sand' with its final letter taken off is 'san'.
'race' put into 'san' is 'SARACEN'.
(Other definitions for saracen that I've seen before include "British Army armoured people carrier" , "Old Arab" , "Muslim opposing the Crusades" , "old Muslim back" , "Crusader's foe" .)