Background
Gülbahar Hatun and Ayşe Hatun were never different women. The theory of Gülbahar Hatun"s origins make her a different women from Ayşe Hatun as both women had same maiden name, Ayşe in both the origins and were also married in the same year. The theories of her background are:
The Ottoman inscription (vakfiye) describes her as Hātun binti Abd-us-Samed (Daughter of Abd-us-Samed), which supports the widespread view that her father was a Pontic Greek who had "turned Turk", that is converted to Islam and joined the Turkish Millet.
Abd-us-Samed, meaning Servant of God, was the anonym that was applied to many Balkan and Anatolian Christians who converted to Islam in the classical Ottoman period.
The origin described above is also described for Emine Gülbahar Hatun, wife of Mehmed the Conqueror, mother of Sultan Bayezid II and the grandmother of Sultan Selim I. The origin described below is the most acceptable origin of Gülbahar Hatun.
According to this origin (most sources have claimed that) she was the daughter of Alaüddevle Bozkurt Bey, the eleventh ruler of the Dulkadirids centered around Elbistan in Kahramanmaraş.
Her real name was Ayşe and was renamed Gülbahar after her marriage.