diff --git a/src/clj/clojure/genclass.clj b/src/clj/clojure/genclass.clj
index 710e58a1a3..afef85c8ef 100644
--- a/src/clj/clojure/genclass.clj
+++ b/src/clj/clojure/genclass.clj
@@ -101,15 +101,26 @@
       'char Character/TYPE
       'chars (Class/forName "[C")})
 
-(defn- ^Class the-class [x] 
-  (cond 
-   (class? x) x
-   (contains? prim->class x) (prim->class x)
-   :else (let [strx (str x)]
-           (clojure.lang.RT/classForName 
-            (if (some #{\. \[} strx)
-              strx
-              (str "java.lang." strx))))))
+(defn- the-array-class [sym]
+  (clojure.lang.RT/classForName
+   (let [cn (namespace sym)]
+     (clojure.lang.Compiler$HostExpr/buildArrayClassDescriptor
+      (if (or (clojure.lang.Compiler/primClass (symbol cn)) (some #{\.} cn))
+        sym
+        (symbol (str "java.lang." cn) (name sym)))))))
+
+(defn- ^Class the-class [x]
+  (cond
+    (class? x) x
+    (symbol? x) (cond (contains? prim->class x) (prim->class x)
+                      (clojure.lang.Compiler$HostExpr/looksLikeArrayClass x)
+                        (the-array-class x)
+                      :else (let [strx (str x)]
+                              (clojure.lang.RT/classForName
+                               (if (some #{\. \[} strx)
+                                 strx
+                                 (str "java.lang." strx)))))
+    :else (clojure.lang.RT/classForName x)))
 
 ;; someday this can be made codepoint aware
 (defn- valid-java-method-name
diff --git a/src/jvm/clojure/lang/Compiler.java b/src/jvm/clojure/lang/Compiler.java
index 6324456fa1..80c25e79e6 100644
--- a/src/jvm/clojure/lang/Compiler.java
+++ b/src/jvm/clojure/lang/Compiler.java
@@ -1124,10 +1124,11 @@ static Class tagToClass(Object tag) {
 		throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unable to resolve classname: " + tag);
 	}
 
-	public static Class maybeArrayClass(Symbol sym) {
-		if(sym.ns == null || !Util.isPosDigit(sym.name))
-			return null;
+	public static boolean looksLikeArrayClass(Symbol sym) {
+		return sym.ns != null && Util.isPosDigit(sym.name);
+	}
 
+	public static String buildArrayClassDescriptor(Symbol sym) {
 		int dim = sym.name.charAt(0) - '0';
 		Symbol componentClassName = Symbol.intern(null, sym.ns);
 		Class componentClass = primClass(componentClassName);
@@ -1137,7 +1138,7 @@ public static Class maybeArrayClass(Symbol sym) {
 
 		if(componentClass == null)
 			throw Util.sneakyThrow(new ClassNotFoundException("Unable to resolve component classname: "
-				+ componentClassName));
+					+ componentClassName));
 
 		StringBuilder arrayDescriptor = new StringBuilder();
 
@@ -1149,7 +1150,14 @@ public static Class maybeArrayClass(Symbol sym) {
 				: "L" + componentClass.getName() + ";";
 
 		arrayDescriptor.append(ccDescr);
-		return maybeClass(arrayDescriptor.toString(), true);
+		return arrayDescriptor.toString();
+	}
+
+	public static Class maybeArrayClass(Symbol sym) {
+		if(!looksLikeArrayClass(sym))
+			return null;
+
+		return maybeClass(buildArrayClassDescriptor(sym), true);
 	}
 }
 
@@ -9184,7 +9192,7 @@ static Class retType(Class tc, Class ret){
         return tc;
     }
 
-	static Class primClass(Symbol sym){
+	public static Class primClass(Symbol sym){
 		if(sym == null)
 			return null;
 		Class c = null;
diff --git a/test/clojure/test_clojure/genclass.clj b/test/clojure/test_clojure/genclass.clj
index 18e808dc11..48ad866365 100644
--- a/test/clojure/test_clojure/genclass.clj
+++ b/test/clojure/test_clojure/genclass.clj
@@ -149,3 +149,13 @@
                         (visitSource [source debug] (.append sourceFile source)))]
     (.accept classReader sourceVisitor 0)
     (is (= "examples.clj" (str sourceFile)))))
+
+(deftest array-descriptors->class
+  (are [descr c] (= (#'clojure.core/the-class descr) c)
+    "[Ljava.util.UUID;" java.util.UUID/1
+    'String java.lang.String
+    'String/1 java.lang.String/1
+    'java.util.UUID java.util.UUID
+    'java.util.UUID/2 java.util.UUID/2
+    'int/1 int/1
+    'boolean/9 boolean/9))