Fertile, say, Egyptian rulers shaved (6)

I believe the answer is:

arable

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'fertile' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'egyptian rulers shaved' is the wordplay.
'egyptian' becomes 'arab' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'shaved' says to take the centre.
The central letters of 'rulers' are 'le'.
'arab'+'le'='ARABLE'

'say' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for arable that I've seen before include "Of land, capable of growing crops" , "may be ploughed through" , "(Of land) capable of producing crops" , "Type of farming" , "like "The Fields"?" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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