Where abroad, to confer knighthood upon the excellent (5)
I believe the answer is:
dubai
'where abroad' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'confer knighthood upon the excellent' is the wordplay.
'confer knighthood' becomes 'dub' (I've seen this in another clue).
'upon' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the excellent' becomes 'ai' (resembles 'A1', old-fashioned term for excellent).
'dub'+'ai'='DUBAI'
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dubai that I've seen before include "Persian Gulf state" , "One of the United Arab Emirates" , "sheikdom?" , "One of the UAE and its capital" , "Gulf emirate and port city" .)