It struck me that Anatolia and Middle East had a remarkably little population (at least in early-modern period and beyond) before experiencing high population growth in 20th century . For example in early 19th century, the population of entire Ottoman Empire, from Balkans to Egypt, was comparable to France or Germany (which had been ravaged in Thirty Years’ War, as far as I know), despite having a much bigger landmass, even if barren areas such as deserts are excluded. Iran wasn’t any better either, it had significantly less population compared to Italy or Spain. Why was that? Invasions? Disease? Agriculture? Was it like that since antiquity, or say since early middle ages? Any good books or articles etc. that are specifically about this subject (or that have a good deal of information about this subject) ?
The first difficulty answering this interesting question is that its that, we do not have that enough sources to carry out an investigation all the way back to the middle ages or antiquity(that is more in the field of anthropologists etc.). But! If we have to stick to our sources, the earliest records of Ottoman demographics is from 16th and 17th, and these were carried out by local authorities, and the methods used in the provinces varied from province to province. The first official nation wide records starts in 1831 and the second one is in 1844, and the reason for this is to lay out groundwork for forming a new armed forces after the dissolving the Janissary system. After this first after 1885 we begin to have stable and detailed official records again. First after the beginning of 19th can we analyze major demographic changes and compare them to each year and area, and after that search for reasons and effects.
Another major problem is the ever changing borders of the Ottoman Empire. Especially loses in Balkans, Crimea and Caucasus created some demographic difficulties. The influx of Muslim refugees fleeing to the Ottoman held lands created some unexpected changes, and of course war and disease had its toll. As you also mentioned yourself wars and disease also happened in Europe, so this factor is probably not the major factor either. The major factor is probably the earlier influence industrialization and modern medicine, those two things is possibly the most influential factors of the "late" blooming of the Ottoman Empire/ Anatolia & middle east. Anatolia and the Middle East in general were more rural than the European of the Empire (with exception some larger cities with reasonable local industry etc.). But still this question of yours is very broad, and could easily be a great thesis or research case. My answer gives some insight of my view of this development, and I have listed some literature you can lookup.
Sources:
Elibol, Numan. "Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda Nüfus Meselesi ve Demografi Araştırmaları." Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi 12.2 (2007). (Turkish, but some refferences in English)
İnalcık, Halil, and Donald Quataert, eds. An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1914. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
McCarthy, Justin. "Muslims and minorities: The population of Ottoman Anatolia and the end of the empire." (1983).
Karpat, Kemal H. "Ottoman population 1830-1914: Demographic and social characteristics." (1985).
Pamuk, Sevket. The Ottoman Empire and European capitalism, 1820-1913: Trade, investment and production. Vol. 12. Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Özel, O. (2004). POPULATION CHANGES IN OTTOMAN ANATOLIA DURING THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES: THE “DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS” RECONSIDERED. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 36(2), 183-205.