Persia 1921 Photo Black Africans. Shepherds or Affiliated with Cossacks?

This photo is from a 1921 publication called Mid-Week Pictorial.
The description beside the picture is:
'Beggars in the streets of Khorassan, Persia. At first sight they seem to be wearing hats, but they have only their hair for covering. The hair is almost as stiff as wire and can be shaped to suit any style in vogue.'

This is the best scan I have right now. Sorry it's not very good.

They don't look like beggars to me. They don't seem to have weapons, but both have walking sticks (the guy on right has a knobby stick in his belt). The guy on the right also seems to have a sheep or goat hanging from his back, you can see the legs and hooves hanging down at his left side. He's also carrying what looks like a metal canteen on his left arm and a leather bag hanging under his right arm. And it looks like he has lace wrapped leather leggings. Both have skins slung over their shoulders.

Maybe it's just the hair styles that make me think of Cossacks.

I'm stumped trying to figure out who these guys are (generally speaking, not specific identity, LOL!) and what they were doing in Persia in 1921.

 

Traders from the Horn of Africa, just across the Arabian gulf.

Elephant tusks and rhino horns, someone had to deliver them.