In early 1595 Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, convinced Ștefan Răzvan, a commander of Hungarian mercenaries in the service of the then Hospodar Aaron the Tyrant to rebel.

In response the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed III, who had been Aaron's protector and sovereign, decided to put an end to the ongoing power struggles in Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania between various magnates.

The Ottoman intervention aroused alarms in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth which sought to reestablish its influence in the region, having lost sovereignty over Moldavia some hundred years earlier after the Battle of the Cosmin Forest.

[1] Zamoyski's intent was to create a buffer zone of friendly states around the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, consisting of Moldavia, Transylvania, and Wallachia, in order to protect it from Ottoman Turkey.

The Sultan sent the Crimean Tatars, under Khan Ğazı II Girej, supported by regular Ottoman troops, altogether numbering around 25,000 soldiers, to meet the Polish army.