Subject of the sultan soon turning tail (5)
I believe the answer is:
omani
'subject of the sultan' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'soon turning tail' is the wordplay.
'soon' becomes 'in a mo' (in a mo).
'turning tail' says the letters should be written backwards.
'inamo' in reverse letter order is 'OMANI'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for omani that I've seen before include "one from the Middle East" , "Middle East national" , "M East person" , "Asian" , "Gulf Arab" .)