Garabala: A black boy from Karabakh

Garabala is an Azeri idiom and can be translated as black boy. Garabala is someone who has dark-coloured or sun-burnt skin, short, thin and small body, shrewd and sharp-witted character. Garabala is an idiom used with positive and cheering connotations.

And above, there is displayed a photo of a Garabala which is a real treasure!

According to Library of Congress description, this photo is from George Kennan's archive, and was shot between 1870-1886 in those days' Russian Azerbaijan. It depicts an Arap, or a black man from.... hmm, guess... Karabakh!

I am looking at this Garabala, and can't stop wondering about the ways this young African man could end up in Karabakh. Was he a eunuch in someone's harem? Was he someone's slave-bodyguard? Was he an artist from an exotic circus? Who was he?

Inscribed on verso is simply "Karabakhski 'Arab' Negro mountainier".