Dried fruit and drink abandoned by a Muslim state (9)
I believe the answer is:
sultanate
'muslim state' is the definition.
'sultanate' can be an answer for 'state' (thesaurus). I am unsure of the 'muslim' bit.
'dried fruit and drink abandoned by a' is the wordplay.
'dried fruit' becomes 'sultana' (sultana is a kind of dried fruit).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'drink' becomes 'tea' (tea is a drink).
'abandoned by' suggests deleting specific letters.
'tea' with 'a' taken out is 'te'.
'sultana'+'te'='SULTANATE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sultanate that I've seen before include "Brunei?" , "Turkey was" , "Country" , "Muslim dominion" .)