Its an impressive project, to write a history of the Arab world. I learnt a lot, but the book at some point became an accounting of too many people and too many events.

The TLDR is the Arab identity was not a singular identity under the Ottomans. The Arab world has not undergone major fundamental "reform" in response to the "enlightenment". There have been piecemeal attempts at adopting western thinking or getting influenced by it.

The British and French colonialism as everywhere was brutal here in the Arab world. The French were especially bad.
Good book to read, but take time you must.