Suqu Sechen
Suqu Sechen was a Mongol of the Barlas tribe and a paternal ancestor of the 14th century conqueror Timur.
In regards to contemporary records, Suqu Sechen is absent from Rashid al-Din's Jami' al-tawarikh, and only has a single mention in the Secret History of the Mongols. There, alongside his son Qarachar, he is described as leading one of the two delegations of the Barlas in the tribal assembly of 1190, which proclaimed the future Genghis Khan ruler of the Mongols. However, no further information is provided for which of the various Barlas groups he and Qarachar may have represented.
While both the Jami' al-tawarikh and the Secret History trace differing common ancestries between Genghis Khan and the Barlas tribe as a whole, neither work mentions Suqu Sechen in the lineages specifically. However, subsequent Timurid writings, such as the Mu'izz al-Ansab and Yazdi's Zafarnama, have him as a great-grandson of Tumanay Khan, a paternal ancestor of Genghis Khan. The Zafarnama identifies Suqu Sechen as the most notable among the twenty-nine sons of Erdemchi Barlas, though only provides the names of three other sons; Tudan, Yüge and Bakalkay.
The Zafarnama continues that Suqu Sechen had been a trusted advisor of Genghis Khan's father Yesugei, as well as a pillar of his rule. He is described as being present during Genghis Khan's birth, and as having foretold the latter's future greatness. The Zafarnama states that Suqu Sechen and Yesugei died within days of each other, with the former leaving a number of minor orphans, including Qarachar and his brother Taghachar. However, this contradicts the Secret History, according to which Suqu Sechen, having attended the 1190 tribal assembly, had outlived Yesugei by at least fifteen years. Historian Peter Jackson suggests that Yazdi was attempting to absolve Suqu Sechen of any responsibility for failing to rescue the young Genghis Khan, who had been cast adrift alongside his mother and brothers following Yesugei's death.