diff --git a/js/jquery.mobile.navigation.js b/js/jquery.mobile.navigation.js
index 2b9e029a..afcb6d1f 100755
--- a/js/jquery.mobile.navigation.js
+++ b/js/jquery.mobile.navigation.js
@@ -1351,7 +1351,12 @@
 
 			//if to is defined, load it
 			if ( to ) {
-				to = ( typeof to === "string" && !path.isPath( to ) ) ? ( '#' + to ) : to;
+				// At this point, 'to' can be one of 3 things, a cached page element from
+				// a history stack entry, an id, or site-relative/absolute URL. If 'to' is
+				// an id, we need to resolve it against the documentBase, not the location.href,
+				// since the hashchange could've been the result of a forward/backward navigation
+				// that crosses from an external page/dialog to an internal page/dialog.
+				to = ( typeof to === "string" && !path.isPath( to ) ) ? ( path.makeUrlAbsolute( '#' + to, documentBase ) ) : to;
 				$.mobile.changePage( to, changePageOptions );
 			}	else {
 				//there's no hash, go to the first page in the dom
diff --git a/js/jquery.mobile.navigation.pushstate.js b/js/jquery.mobile.navigation.pushstate.js
index 03f3c1ff..0eb99bd6 100644
--- a/js/jquery.mobile.navigation.pushstate.js
+++ b/js/jquery.mobile.navigation.pushstate.js
@@ -52,24 +52,34 @@
 		// NOTE this takes place *after* the vanilla navigation hash change
 		// handling has taken place and set the state of the DOM
 		onHashChange: function( e ) {
-			var href, state;
+			var href, state,
+				hash = location.hash,
+				isPath = $.mobile.path.isPath( hash );
+			hash = isPath ? hash.replace( "#", "" ) : hash;
 
 			self.hashchangeFired = true;
 
-			// only replaceState when the hash doesn't represent an embeded page
-			if( $.mobile.path.isPath(location.hash) ) {
+			// propulate the hash when its not available
+			state = self.state();
 
-				// propulate the hash when its not available
-				state = self.state();
-
-				// make the hash abolute with the current href
-				href = $.mobile.path.makeUrlAbsolute( state.hash.replace("#", ""), location.href );
+			// make the hash abolute with the current href
+			href = $.mobile.path.makeUrlAbsolute( hash, location.href );
 
+			if ( isPath ) {
 				href = self.resetUIKeys( href );
-
-				// replace the current url with the new href and store the state
-				history.replaceState( state, document.title, href );
 			}
+
+			// replace the current url with the new href and store the state
+			// Note that in some cases we might be replacing an url with the
+			// same url. We do this anyways because we need to make sure that
+			// all of our history entries have a state object associated with
+			// them. This allows us to work around the case where window.history.back()
+			// is called to transition from an external page to an embedded page.
+			// In that particular case, a hashchange event is *NOT* generated by the browser.
+			// Ensuring each history entry has a state object means that onPopState()
+			// will always trigger our hashchange callback even when a hashchange event
+			// is not fired.
+			history.replaceState( state, document.title, href );
 		},
 
 		// on popstate (ie back or forward) we need to replace the hash that was there previously
diff --git a/tests/unit/navigation/navigation_core.js b/tests/unit/navigation/navigation_core.js
index 2c5a87cf..37406ebb 100644
--- a/tests/unit/navigation/navigation_core.js
+++ b/tests/unit/navigation/navigation_core.js
@@ -43,6 +43,36 @@
 		}
 	});
 
+	asyncTest( "window.history.back() from external to internal page", function(){
+
+		$.testHelper.pageSequence([
+
+			// open our test page
+			function(){
+				$.testHelper.openPage("#active-state-page1");
+			},
+
+			function(){
+				ok( $.mobile.activePage[0] === $( "#active-state-page1" )[ 0 ], "successful navigation to internal page." );
+
+				//location.hash = siteDirectory + "external.html";
+				$.mobile.changePage("external.html");
+			},
+
+			function(){
+				ok( $.mobile.activePage[0] !== $( "#active-state-page1" )[ 0 ], "successful navigation to external page." );
+
+				window.history.back();
+			},
+
+			function(){
+				ok( $.mobile.activePage[0] === $( "#active-state-page1" )[ 0 ], "successful navigation back to internal page." );
+
+				start();
+			}
+		]);
+	});
+
 	asyncTest( "external page is removed from the DOM after pagehide", function(){
 		$.testHelper.pageSequence([
 			navigateTestRoot,