diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 3396d21a..1c3bf0a6 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -52,46 +52,9 @@ END
 
   require 'rake/gempackagetask'
   require 'lib/haml'
+  load    'haml.gemspec'
 
-  spec = Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
-    spec.name = 'haml'
-    spec.summary = "An elegant, structured XHTML/XML templating engine.\nComes with Sass, a similar CSS templating engine."
-    spec.version = File.read('VERSION').strip
-    spec.author = 'Hampton Catlin'
-    spec.email = 'haml@googlegroups.com'
-    spec.description = <<-END
-      Haml (HTML Abstraction Markup Language) is a layer on top of XHTML or XML
-      that's designed to express the structure of XHTML or XML documents
-      in a non-repetitive, elegant, easy way,
-      using indentation rather than closing tags
-      and allowing Ruby to be embedded with ease.
-      It was originally envisioned as a plugin for Ruby on Rails,
-      but it can function as a stand-alone templating engine.
-    END
-    #'
-
-    readmes = FileList.new('*') do |list|
-      list.exclude(/(^|[^.a-z])[a-z]+/)
-      list.exclude('TODO')
-      list.include('REVISION')
-    end.to_a
-    spec.executables = ['haml', 'html2haml', 'sass', 'css2sass']
-    spec.files = FileList['lib/**/*', 'bin/*', 'test/**/*', 'Rakefile', 'init.rb'].to_a + readmes
-    spec.autorequire = ['haml', 'sass']
-    spec.homepage = 'http://haml.hamptoncatlin.com/'
-    spec.has_rdoc = true
-    spec.extra_rdoc_files = readmes
-    spec.rdoc_options += [
-      '--title', 'Haml',
-      '--main', 'README.rdoc',
-      '--exclude', 'lib/haml/buffer.rb',
-      '--line-numbers',
-      '--inline-source'
-    ]
-    spec.test_files = FileList['test/**/*_test.rb'].to_a
-  end
-
-  Rake::GemPackageTask.new(spec) do |pkg|
+  Rake::GemPackageTask.new(HAML_GEMSPEC) do |pkg|
     pkg.need_zip     = true
     pkg.need_tar_gz  = true
     pkg.need_tar_bz2 = true
diff --git a/haml.gemspec b/haml.gemspec
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d490daa7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/haml.gemspec
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+HAML_GEMSPEC = Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
+  spec.name = 'haml'
+  spec.summary = "An elegant, structured XHTML/XML templating engine.\nComes with Sass, a similar CSS templating engine."
+  spec.version = File.read('VERSION').strip
+  spec.author = 'Hampton Catlin'
+  spec.email = 'haml@googlegroups.com'
+  spec.description = <<-END
+      Haml (HTML Abstraction Markup Language) is a layer on top of XHTML or XML
+      that's designed to express the structure of XHTML or XML documents
+      in a non-repetitive, elegant, easy way,
+      using indentation rather than closing tags
+      and allowing Ruby to be embedded with ease.
+      It was originally envisioned as a plugin for Ruby on Rails,
+      but it can function as a stand-alone templating engine.
+    END
+  #'
+
+  readmes = FileList.new('*') do |list|
+    list.exclude(/(^|[^.a-z])[a-z]+/)
+    list.exclude('TODO')
+    list.include('REVISION')
+  end.to_a
+  spec.executables = ['haml', 'html2haml', 'sass', 'css2sass']
+  spec.files = FileList['lib/**/*', 'bin/*', 'test/**/*', 'Rakefile', 'init.rb'].to_a + readmes
+  spec.autorequire = ['haml', 'sass']
+  spec.homepage = 'http://haml.hamptoncatlin.com/'
+  spec.has_rdoc = true
+  spec.extra_rdoc_files = readmes
+  spec.rdoc_options += [
+    '--title', 'Haml',
+    '--main', 'README.rdoc',
+    '--exclude', 'lib/haml/buffer.rb',
+    '--line-numbers',
+    '--inline-source'
+   ]
+  spec.test_files = FileList['test/**/*_test.rb'].to_a
+end