The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 6 letter word RAS TAFARI
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
R
A
S
T
A
F
A
R
I
More clues leading to the result RAS TAFARI
- Emperor backed an Iranian language, banning son’s imperial title
- Emperor runs a hunting trip that saves time
- Selassie’s artist getting time to stop hunting expedition
- One emperor giving lift to another’s a long way off one
- Emperor‘s time in expedition led by artist
- Emperor’s artist on expedition about beginning of Thebes
- Russian emperor overthrown a long way before one Ethiopian one
- A fair star could become emperor
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "imperial title" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case imperial title = ras tafari.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.