diff --git a/toolkit/content/widgets/browser.xml b/toolkit/content/widgets/browser.xml
index 40c903c5aef..8d6fbd203c9 100644
--- a/toolkit/content/widgets/browser.xml
+++ b/toolkit/content/widgets/browser.xml
@@ -646,7 +646,8 @@
                       Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/shistory;1"]
                                 .createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsISHistory);
               // enable global history
-              this.docShell.QueryInterface(Components.interfaces.nsIDocShellHistory).useGlobalHistory = true;
+              if (this.docShell)
+                this.docShell.QueryInterface(Components.interfaces.nsIDocShellHistory).useGlobalHistory = true;
             }
           }
           catch (e) {