The printing press was banned as a cynical ploy by Ottoman rulers to suppress the Arab peoples. They knew this would reduce innovation, which Arabs were adept at - maybe even reduce Arab innovation for centuries - but hey, you can’t make an omelette without cracking some eggs right?

Ottomans wrote the whole playbook for Middle Eastern dictators: systematically favor the ethnoreligious groups you like, ensure that any big business opportunities are channeled through them, and then for disfavored ethnoreligious groups, suppress avenues to wealth which can be used against their rulers. Then, with the massive vacuum of intelligence left behind as a result of this policy, let fundamentalists misuse religion in such a way to keep your opponents simple and stupid (whereas during the Islamic Golden Age, scientists were inspired by Islam to make groundbreaking discoveries, and they in turn helped spark the Enlightenment in Europe).