diff --git a/docs/_ext/djangodocs.py b/docs/_ext/djangodocs.py
index 24be841110..8c4b51166c 100644
--- a/docs/_ext/djangodocs.py
+++ b/docs/_ext/djangodocs.py
@@ -83,7 +83,10 @@ class VersionDirective(Directive):
         if not is_nextversion:
             if len(self.arguments) == 1:
                 linktext = 'Please, see the release notes </releases/%s>' % (arg0)
-                xrefs = roles.XRefRole()('doc', linktext, linktext, self.lineno, self.state)
+                try:
+                    xrefs = roles.XRefRole()('doc', linktext, linktext, self.lineno, self.state) # Sphinx >= 1.0
+                except AttributeError:
+                    xrefs = roles.xfileref_role('doc', linktext, linktext, self.lineno, self.state) # Sphinx < 1.0
                 node.extend(xrefs[0])
             node['version'] = arg0
         else:
@@ -193,7 +196,10 @@ def parse_django_admin_node(env, sig, signode):
 
 def parse_django_adminopt_node(env, sig, signode):
     """A copy of sphinx.directives.CmdoptionDesc.parse_signature()"""
-    from sphinx.domains.std import option_desc_re
+    try:
+        from sphinx.domains.std import option_desc_re # Sphinx >= 1.0
+    except ImportError:
+        from sphinx.directives.desc import option_desc_re # Sphinx < 1.0
     count = 0
     firstname = ''
     for m in option_desc_re.finditer(sig):
@@ -233,13 +239,24 @@ class DjangoStandaloneHTMLBuilder(StandaloneHTMLBuilder):
             self.warn("cannot create templatebuiltins.js due to missing simplejson dependency")
             return
         self.info(bold("writing templatebuiltins.js..."))
-        xrefs = self.env.domaindata["std"]["objects"]
-        templatebuiltins = dict([('ttags', [n for ((t,n), (l,a)) in xrefs.items()
-                                            if t == 'templatetag' and
-                                            l == 'ref/templates/builtins' ]),
-                                 ('tfilters', [n for ((t,n), (l,a)) in xrefs.items()
-                                               if t == 'templatefilter' and
-                                               t == 'ref/templates/builtins'])])
+        try:
+            # Sphinx < 1.0
+            xrefs = self.env.reftargets.items()
+            templatebuiltins = dict([('ttags', [n for ((t,n),(l,a)) in xrefs
+                                                if t == 'ttag' and
+                                                l == 'ref/templates/builtins']),
+                                     ('tfilters', [n for ((t,n),(l,a)) in xrefs
+                                                   if t == 'tfilter' and
+                                                   l == 'ref/templates/builtins'])])
+        except AttributeError:
+            # Sphinx >= 1.0
+            xrefs = self.env.domaindata["std"]["objects"]
+            templatebuiltins = dict([('ttags', [n for ((t,n), (l,a)) in xrefs.items()
+                                                if t == 'templatetag' and
+                                                l == 'ref/templates/builtins' ]),
+                                     ('tfilters', [n for ((t,n), (l,a)) in xrefs.items()
+                                                   if t == 'templatefilter' and
+                                                   t == 'ref/templates/builtins'])])
         outfilename = os.path.join(self.outdir, "templatebuiltins.js")
         f = open(outfilename, 'wb')
         f.write('var django_template_builtins = ')
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 3c3a5d5f33..ac6aed1fb9 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ sys.path.append(os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "_ext"))
 # -- General configuration -----------------------------------------------------
 
 # If your documentation needs a minimal Sphinx version, state it here.
-needs_sphinx = '1.0'
+#needs_sphinx = '1.0'
 
 # Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be extensions
 # coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom ones.
diff --git a/docs/internals/documentation.txt b/docs/internals/documentation.txt
index a0dd17fbc2..36270eafb7 100644
--- a/docs/internals/documentation.txt
+++ b/docs/internals/documentation.txt
@@ -15,12 +15,8 @@ Sphinx -- ``easy_install Sphinx`` should do the trick.
 
 .. note::
 
-    Building the Django documentation requires Sphinx 1.0.2 or newer. Sphinx
-    also requires the Pygments__ library for syntax highlighting; building the
-    Django documentation requires Pygments 1.1 or newer (a new-enough version
-    should automatically be installed along with Sphinx).
-
-__ http://pygments.org
+    The Django documentation can be generated with Sphinx version 0.6 or
+    newer, but we recommend using Sphinx 1.0.2 or newer.
 
 Then, building the HTML is easy; just ``make html`` from the ``docs`` directory.