The Cumans, a nomadic Turkish people comprising the western branch of the Kipchak confederation, had during the twelfth century acted as auxiliary troops for the Russian princes and in that capacity had clashed with Hungarian expeditionary forces; but, by the beginning of the thirteenth century, they had become more aggressive and launched their own raids into southeastern Transylvania.

The Cuman prince Barc and fifteen thousand of his people are baptized into the Christian faith in 1227.