Arab rising took in small city in Iraq (5)
I believe the answer is:
basra
'city in iraq' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'arab rising took in' is the wordplay.
'rising' says the letters should be written in reverse (going up in a down clue).
'took' becomes 's' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'arab' in reverse letter order is 'bara'.
'bara' placed around 's' is 'BASRA'.
'small' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for basra that I've seen before include "Iraqi port city" , "Iraq's main port" , "Iraqi port on the Shatt-al-Arab waterway" , "Iraqi city; Arabs (anag.)" , "Iraqi town" .)