Islamic leader governed country (4)
I believe the answer is:
iran
'country' is the definition.
(Iran is an example)
'islamic leader governed' is the wordplay.
'leader' says to take the initial letters.
'governed' becomes 'ran' (I've seen this in other clues).
The first letter of 'islamic' is 'i'.
'i'+'ran'='IRAN'
(Other definitions for iran that I've seen before include "Persia today" , "Country where ayatollahs replaced a shah" , "It was known as Persia until 1935" , "Country that was Persia" , "Middle East Islamic republic" .)