diff --git a/Ahuacatl/ahuacatl-functions.c b/Ahuacatl/ahuacatl-functions.c
index ff379d3171..0f7418e734 100644
--- a/Ahuacatl/ahuacatl-functions.c
+++ b/Ahuacatl/ahuacatl-functions.c
@@ -385,6 +385,7 @@ TRI_associative_pointer_t* TRI_InitialiseFunctionsAql (void) {
   // misc functions
   REGISTER_FUNCTION("FAIL", "FAIL", false, false, "|s"); // FAIL is non-deterministic, otherwise query optimisation will fail!
   REGISTER_FUNCTION("PASSTHRU", "PASSTHRU", false, false, "."); // simple non-deterministic wrapper to avoid optimisations at parse time
+  REGISTER_FUNCTION("COLLECTIONS", "COLLECTIONS", false, false, ""); 
 
   REGISTER_FUNCTION("MERGE", "MERGE", true, false, "a,a|+");
 
diff --git a/js/server/ahuacatl.js b/js/server/ahuacatl.js
index 91f246aab8..d7d49fda67 100644
--- a/js/server/ahuacatl.js
+++ b/js/server/ahuacatl.js
@@ -445,6 +445,20 @@ function AHUACATL_GET_DOCUMENTS_SKIPLIST_LIST (collection, idx, attribute, value
   return result;
 }
 
+////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+/// @brief get names of all collections
+////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+function AHUACATL_COLLECTIONS () {
+  var collections = internal.db._collections();
+  var result = [ ];
+
+  for (var i = 0; i < collections.length; ++i) {
+    result.push({ "_id" : collections[i]._id, "name" : collections[i].name() });
+  }
+
+  return result;
+}
 
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 /// @}
diff --git a/js/server/js-ahuacatl.h b/js/server/js-ahuacatl.h
index c5d48e3730..00eb9c3ac3 100644
--- a/js/server/js-ahuacatl.h
+++ b/js/server/js-ahuacatl.h
@@ -443,10 +443,23 @@ static string JS_server_ahuacatl =
   "    }\n"
   "  }\n"
   "\n"
-  "\n"
   "  return result;\n"
   "}\n"
   "\n"
+  "////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////\n"
+  "/// @brief get names of all collections\n"
+  "////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////\n"
+  "\n"
+  "function AHUACATL_COLLECTIONS () {\n"
+  "  var collections = internal.db._collections();\n"
+  "  var result = [ ];\n"
+  "\n"
+  "  for (var i = 0; i < collections.length; ++i) {\n"
+  "    result.push({ \"_id\" : collections[i]._id, \"name\" : collections[i].name() });\n"
+  "  }\n"
+  "\n"
+  "  return result;\n"
+  "}\n"
   "\n"
   "////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////\n"
   "/// @}\n"