Reading about the rise of mass politics and nationalism in the Arab world I repeatedly come across comments about the importance of urbanisation, and sometimes prolitereanisation, in creating an arena in which mass politics could take off. However, there's often very few hard statistics on said issues. Could anyone either provide or point me towards where I could find such things.
When I was at university I used them as reference books (they were excellent for a paper I did on Egyptian cotton production in the 19th century and its role in British Imperialism before/during/after the Lancashire Cotton Famine) so I haven't read them cover to cover, but I would strongly encourage you to take a look at Roger Owen's The Middle East and the World Economy: 1800-1914 and A History of Middle East Political Economies in the 20th Century.
My area of greatest knowledge is Egypt so the following books will be specific to the issues you raised on that but a few books I would consider you to look at that touch on these issues (mass politics, nationalism, urban/rural issues, etc.) I would look at Egypt, Islam and the Arabs: the search for Egyptian nationhood, 1900-1930 and Redefining the Egyptian Nation, 1930-1945 both written jointly by Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski, as well as The Society of Muslim Brothers by Richard Mitchell. Published in 1969 Society is still the best history of the Brotherhood and is also excellent on the political dynamics of mass politics in Egypt from the 1920s until the Brotherhood was proscribed by Nasser soon after the '56 revolution. The Gershoni and Jankowski books are a bit dense, but as I recall they're very good on analyzing primary source political writings and materials. For intellectual background you may want to look at the later chapters of Albert Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1789-1939.