diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 28e831b1a2..16e0531c33 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
  * Fix infinite loop on exception while streaming (CASSANDRA-7330)
  * Reference sstables before populating key cache (CASSANDRA-7234)
 Merged from 1.2:
+ * cqlsh: ignore .cassandra permission errors (CASSANDRA-7266)
  * Errors in FlushRunnable may leave threads hung (CASSANDRA-7275)
  * reduce failure detector initial value to 2s (CASSANDRA-7307)
  * Fix problem truncating on a node that was previously in a dead state (CASSANDRA-7318)
diff --git a/bin/cqlsh b/bin/cqlsh
index fddc201c99..54840213ae 100755
--- a/bin/cqlsh
+++ b/bin/cqlsh
@@ -124,7 +124,10 @@ HISTORY_DIR = os.path.expanduser(os.path.join('~', '.cassandra'))
 CONFIG_FILE = os.path.join(HISTORY_DIR, 'cqlshrc')
 HISTORY = os.path.join(HISTORY_DIR, 'cqlsh_history')
 if not os.path.exists(HISTORY_DIR):
-    os.mkdir(HISTORY_DIR)
+    try:
+        os.mkdir(HISTORY_DIR)
+    except OSError:
+        print '\nWarning: Cannot create directory at `%s`. Command history will not be saved.\n' % HISTORY_DIR
 
 OLD_CONFIG_FILE = os.path.expanduser(os.path.join('~', '.cqlshrc'))
 if os.path.exists(OLD_CONFIG_FILE):