diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index b1948f1..9ae69dd 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -184,6 +184,31 @@ fi
 AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_ICU_LE, $have_icu_le)
 
 dnl ==========================================================================
+dnl Fallback to icu-config if ICU pkg-config files could not be found
+dnl ==========================================================================
+
+if test "$have_icu" != "true"; then
+    AC_PATH_PROG(icu_config, icu-config, no)
+    AC_MSG_CHECKING([for ICU by using icu-config fallback])
+    if test "$icu_config" != "no"; then
+        # We don't use --cflags as this gives us a lot of things that we don't
+        # necessarily want, like debugging and optimization flags
+        # See man (1) icu-config for more info.
+        ICU_CFLAGS=`$icu_config --cppflags`
+        ICU_LIBS=`$icu_config --ldflags-libsonly --ldflags-layout`
+        AC_SUBST(ICU_CFLAGS)
+        AC_SUBST(ICU_LIBS)
+        AC_DEFINE(HAVE_ICU_LE, 1, [Have ICU Layout Engine library])
+        AC_DEFINE(HAVE_ICU, 1, [Have ICU library])
+        AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_ICU, true)
+        AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_ICU_LE, true)
+        AC_MSG_RESULT([yes])
+    else
+        AC_MSG_RESULT([no])
+    fi
+fi
+
+dnl ==========================================================================
 
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(GRAPHITE2, graphite2, have_graphite=true, have_graphite=false)
 if $have_graphite; then