diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 947b7502899..2329c8b86b2 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -245,6 +245,7 @@ answer newbie questions, and generally made Django that much better:
     michael.mcewan@gmail.com
     michal@plovarna.cz
     Mikko Hellsing <mikko@sorl.net>
+    Daniel Lindsley <polarcowz@gmail.com>
     Orestis Markou <orestis@orestis.gr>
     Slawek Mikula <slawek dot mikula at gmail dot com>
     mitakummaa@gmail.com
diff --git a/django/http/__init__.py b/django/http/__init__.py
index 5439aa6c63c..7faa3c875ed 100644
--- a/django/http/__init__.py
+++ b/django/http/__init__.py
@@ -82,6 +82,9 @@ class HttpRequest(object):
     def is_secure(self):
         return os.environ.get("HTTPS") == "on"
 
+    def is_ajax(self):
+        return self.META.get('HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH') == 'XMLHttpRequest'
+
     def _set_encoding(self, val):
         """
         Sets the encoding used for GET/POST accesses. If the GET or POST
diff --git a/docs/request_response.txt b/docs/request_response.txt
index 4dcdf10adff..0e0f046a2d1 100644
--- a/docs/request_response.txt
+++ b/docs/request_response.txt
@@ -199,6 +199,23 @@ Methods
    Returns ``True`` if the request is secure; that is, if it was made with
    HTTPS.
 
+``is_ajax()``
+   **New in Django development version**
+
+   Returns ``True`` if the request was made via an XMLHttpRequest by checking
+   the ``HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH`` header for the string *'XMLHttpRequest'*. The
+   following major Javascript libraries all send this header:
+
+   * jQuery
+   * Dojo
+   * MochiKit
+   * MooTools
+   * Prototype
+   * YUI
+
+   If you write your own XMLHttpRequest call (on the browser side), you will
+   have to set this header manually to use this method.
+
 QueryDict objects
 -----------------