diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 73ad00d12..44743a397 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 
 - ...
 
+# Release 1.5.1
+- #531 Add alternative way to retrieve version number from pyproject.toml
+
 # Release 1.5.0
 
 - #492 Feat: Global configuration support (@bagel897)
diff --git a/rope/__init__.py b/rope/__init__.py
index 489396cd1..f0bacd6d0 100644
--- a/rope/__init__.py
+++ b/rope/__init__.py
@@ -1,10 +1,25 @@
 """rope, a python refactoring library"""
 
-from pkg_resources import get_distribution
+from pkg_resources import get_distribution, DistributionNotFound
+
+try:
+    VERSION = get_distribution("rope").version
+except DistributionNotFound:
+
+    def get_fallback_version():
+        import re
+        import pathlib
+
+        pyproject = (
+            pathlib.Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent / "pyproject.toml"
+        ).read_text()
+        version = re.search("version.*=.*'(.*)'", pyproject)
+        return version.group(1) if version else None
+
+    VERSION = get_fallback_version()
 
 
 INFO = __doc__
-VERSION = get_distribution("rope").version
 COPYRIGHT = """\
 Copyright (C) 2021-2022 Lie Ryan
 Copyright (C) 2019-2021 Matej Cepl