This paper explores how Muslim refugees and migrants from the Balkans narrated their experiences of displacement during the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-78. The war led to the flight of hundreds of thousands of people of various backgrounds in the Balkans and the Caucasus; however, Muslims constituted the most significant part of the displaced. The mass flight of so many people turned into a humanitarian crisis and presented the Ottoman authorities with the challenge of dealing with an unprecedented influx of refugees within such a short period of time. At the same time the encounter with the refugees produced shock waves within Ottoman society. Existing scholarship has provided valuable insights into issues, such as state policies towards migration, the efforts to accommodate and settle the newcomers, and society’s responses towards the refugees and migrants. In comparison, this paper seeks to add a different perspective to the subject of migration by addressing the question of how refugees and migrants experienced and narrated their ordeal. The paper examines archival documentation and contemporaneously published sources to uncover accounts of flight and exile. It focuses on the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-78 and the Balkan theater of military activity. The paper argues that such narratives presented displacement as a defining event and experience – for the refugees themselves and for the Ottoman state. It shows that these accounts served several purposes. They were a way for authors to process the trauma and make sense of the experience on a personal, as well as on a historical level as they saw the fate of migrants as being closely intertwined with that of the Ottoman state. They were also a way for migrants who had lost their native places to claim belonging in a homeland which borders were shrinking progressively. Finally, these narratives served as criticism of European powers and the newly established post-Ottoman successor states for their double standards of humanitarianism. The paper concludes by highlighting how such accounts reflected and reinforced the emergence of a new kind of Ottomanism which placed greater emphasis on Islam and Muslims in the empire.