diff --git a/base/linalg/generic.jl b/base/linalg/generic.jl
index b8e26ecdbb4bd..63390c372c0dc 100644
--- a/base/linalg/generic.jl
+++ b/base/linalg/generic.jl
@@ -14,6 +14,13 @@ function generic_scale!(X::AbstractArray, s::Number)
     X
 end
 
+function generic_scale!(s::Number, X::AbstractArray)
+    @simd for I in eachindex(X)
+        @inbounds X[I] = s*X[I]
+    end
+    X
+end
+
 function generic_scale!(C::AbstractArray, X::AbstractArray, s::Number)
     if length(C) != length(X)
         throw(DimensionMismatch("first array has length $(length(C)) which does not match the length of the second, $(length(X))."))
@@ -29,10 +36,28 @@ function generic_scale!(C::AbstractArray, X::AbstractArray, s::Number)
     end
     C
 end
+
+function generic_scale!(C::AbstractArray, s::Number, X::AbstractArray)
+    if length(C) != length(X)
+        throw(DimensionMismatch("first array has length $(length(C)) which does not
+match the length of the second, $(length(X))."))
+    end
+    if size(C) == size(X)
+        for I in eachindex(C, X)
+            @inbounds C[I] = s*X[I]
+        end
+    else
+        for (IC, IX) in zip(eachindex(C), eachindex(X))
+            @inbounds C[IC] = s*X[IX]
+        end
+    end
+    C
+end
+
 scale!(C::AbstractArray, s::Number, X::AbstractArray) = generic_scale!(C, X, s)
-scale!(C::AbstractArray, X::AbstractArray, s::Number) = generic_scale!(C, X, s)
+scale!(C::AbstractArray, X::AbstractArray, s::Number) = generic_scale!(C, s, X)
 scale!(X::AbstractArray, s::Number) = generic_scale!(X, s)
-scale!(s::Number, X::AbstractArray) = generic_scale!(X, s)
+scale!(s::Number, X::AbstractArray) = generic_scale!(s, X)
 
 cross(a::AbstractVector, b::AbstractVector) = [a[2]*b[3]-a[3]*b[2], a[3]*b[1]-a[1]*b[3], a[1]*b[2]-a[2]*b[1]]
 
diff --git a/base/sparse/linalg.jl b/base/sparse/linalg.jl
index 80d7d8616fad6..02231b7ab7252 100644
--- a/base/sparse/linalg.jl
+++ b/base/sparse/linalg.jl
@@ -815,7 +815,13 @@ function scale!(C::SparseMatrixCSC, A::SparseMatrixCSC, b::Number)
     C
 end
 
-scale!(C::SparseMatrixCSC, b::Number, A::SparseMatrixCSC) = scale!(C, A, b)
+function scale!(C::SparseMatrixCSC, b::Number, A::SparseMatrixCSC)
+    size(A)==size(C) || throw(DimensionMismatch())
+    copyinds!(C, A)
+    resize!(C.nzval, length(A.nzval))
+    scale!(C.nzval, b, A.nzval)
+    C
+end
 
 scale!(A::SparseMatrixCSC, b::Number) = (scale!(A.nzval, b); A)
 scale!(b::Number, A::SparseMatrixCSC) = (scale!(b, A.nzval); A)
diff --git a/test/linalg/generic.jl b/test/linalg/generic.jl
index 3dee2b2577ac4..690e6da9c4138 100644
--- a/test/linalg/generic.jl
+++ b/test/linalg/generic.jl
@@ -1,7 +1,26 @@
 # This file is a part of Julia. License is MIT: http://julialang.org/license
 
+import Base: *
 using Base.Test
 
+# A custom Quaternion type with minimal defined interface and methods.
+# Used to test scale and scale! methods to show non-commutativity.
+immutable Quaternion{T<:Real} <: Number
+    s::T
+    v1::T
+    v2::T
+    v3::T
+    norm::Bool
+end
+Quaternion(s::Real, v1::Real, v2::Real, v3::Real, n::Bool = false) =
+    Quaternion( promote(s, v1, v2, v3)..., n)
+Quaternion(a::Vector) = Quaternion(0, a[1], a[2], a[3])
+(*)(q::Quaternion, w::Quaternion) = Quaternion(q.s*w.s - q.v1*w.v1 - q.v2*w.v2 - q.v3*w.v3,
+                                               q.s*w.v1 + q.v1*w.s + q.v2*w.v3 - q.v3*w.v2,
+                                               q.s*w.v2 - q.v1*w.v3 + q.v2*w.s + q.v3*w.v1,
+                                               q.s*w.v3 + q.v1*w.v2 - q.v2*w.v1 + q.v3*w.s,
+                                               q.norm && w.norm)
+
 debug = false
 
 srand(123)
@@ -119,6 +138,12 @@ b = randn(Base.LinAlg.SCAL_CUTOFF) # make sure we try BLAS path
 @test isequal(scale(BigFloat[1.0], 2.0im),     Complex{BigFloat}[2.0im])
 @test isequal(scale(BigFloat[1.0], 2.0f0im),   Complex{BigFloat}[2.0im])
 
+# test scale and scale! for non-commutative multiplication
+q = Quaternion([0.44567, 0.755871, 0.882548, 0.423612])
+qmat = []
+push!(qmat, Quaternion([0.015007, 0.355067, 0.418645, 0.318373]))
+@test scale!(q, copy(qmat)) != scale!(copy(qmat), q)
+
 # test ops on Numbers
 for elty in [Float32,Float64,Complex64,Complex128]
     a = rand(elty)