diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 0868688886..321f594b0f 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
  * Fix NPE when unknown prepared statement ID is used (CASSANDRA-7454)
  * Adjust MT depth based on # of partition validating (CASSANDRA-5263)
  * Optimise NativeCell comparisons (CASSANDRA-6755)
+ * Configurable client timeout for cqlsh (CASSANDRA-7516)
 
 
 2.1.0-final
diff --git a/bin/cqlsh b/bin/cqlsh
index c3a4ea6e35..9a6d5361ff 100755
--- a/bin/cqlsh
+++ b/bin/cqlsh
@@ -467,7 +467,8 @@ class Shell(cmd.Cmd):
                  display_time_format=DEFAULT_TIME_FORMAT,
                  display_float_precision=DEFAULT_FLOAT_PRECISION,
                  ssl=False,
-                 single_statement=None):
+                 single_statement=None,
+                 client_timeout=10):
         cmd.Cmd.__init__(self, completekey=completekey)
         self.hostname = hostname
         self.port = port
@@ -493,6 +494,7 @@ class Shell(cmd.Cmd):
             self.session = self.conn.connect(keyspace)
         else:
             self.session = self.conn.connect()
+        self.session.default_timeout = client_timeout
         self.get_connection_versions()
 
         self.current_keyspace = keyspace
@@ -1778,6 +1780,11 @@ def read_options(cmdlineargs, environment):
 
     hostname = option_with_default(configs.get, 'connection', 'hostname', DEFAULT_HOST)
     port = option_with_default(configs.get, 'connection', 'port', DEFAULT_PORT)
+    options.client_timeout = option_with_default(configs.get, 'connection', 'client_timeout', '10')
+    if options.client_timeout.lower() == 'none':
+        options.client_timeout = None
+    else:
+        options.client_timeout = int(options.client_timeout)
 
     hostname = environment.get('CQLSH_HOST', hostname)
     port = environment.get('CQLSH_PORT', port)
@@ -1874,7 +1881,8 @@ def main(options, hostname, port):
                       display_time_format=options.time_format,
                       display_float_precision=options.float_precision,
                       ssl=options.ssl,
-                      single_statement=options.execute)
+                      single_statement=options.execute,
+                      client_timeout=options.client_timeout)
     except KeyboardInterrupt:
         sys.exit('Connection aborted.')
     except CQL_ERRORS, e: