Zübeyde was born in Langaza village (now in Thessaloniki regional unit), Ottoman Empire in 1857 as the daughter of a Turkish peasant.

[3] Zübeyde Hanım was born in 1857 in Lagkadas to a Turkish family,[4][5] and according to historian Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, she was of Turkic Yörük origin.

With her dark blonde hair, deep blue eyes and fair skin, she won the admiration of Ali Rıza, a border guard.

Following his death, Zübeyde Hanım moved with her two children, Mustafa and Makbule to live with her brother, Husein, who was the manager of a farm outside Salonica.

After the Balkan Wars, when the Ottomans lost Salonica to Greece, she moved to a house in Beşiktaş-Akaretler, Istanbul with her daughter Makbule.