diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index d7a8cfcb875..02eae06b9aa 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ Merged from 6.0:
  * Introduce minimum_threshold for data resurrection startup check (CASSANDRA-21293)
  * Synchronously publish changes to local gossip state following metadata updates (CASSANDRA-21239)
 Merged from 5.0:
+ * Allow setCompressedReadAheadBufferSizeInKb(0) to disable read-ahead buffer (CASSANDRA-21522)
  * Fix ThreadLocalReadAheadBuffer#fill() to throw a CorruptBlockException if chunk metadata and file size are out of sync (CASSANDRA-21519)
  * Support Python 3.12 and 3.13 in cqlsh (CASSANDRA-20997)
  * Make synchronization on VectorMemoryIndex inserts more granular (CASSANDRA-21160)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
index 5bc6de7ac1e..f327826310e 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
@@ -3072,8 +3072,8 @@ public static int getCompressedReadAheadBufferSizeInKB()
 
     public static void setCompressedReadAheadBufferSizeInKb(int sizeInKb)
     {
-        if (sizeInKb < 256)
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("compressed_read_ahead_buffer_size_in_kb must be at least 256KiB");
+        if (sizeInKb < 0 || (sizeInKb > 0 && sizeInKb < 256))
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("compressed_read_ahead_buffer_size_in_kb must be at least 256KiB (set to 0 to disable)");
 
         conf.compressed_read_ahead_buffer_size = createIntKibibyteBoundAndEnsureItIsValidForByteConversion(sizeInKb, "compressed_read_ahead_buffer_size");
     }
diff --git a/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptorTest.java b/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptorTest.java
index 6f80a3dc6c3..c3bdd00e21a 100644
--- a/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptorTest.java
+++ b/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptorTest.java
@@ -1212,4 +1212,28 @@ public void testGetDirectIOWritePaths() throws IOException
             conf.local_system_data_file_directory = savedLocalSystemDir;
         }
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testSetCompressedReadAheadBufferSizeInKb()
+    {
+        int original = DatabaseDescriptor.getCompressedReadAheadBufferSizeInKB();
+        try
+        {
+            // 0 should be a legal value, and represents disabling read-ahead buffer
+            DatabaseDescriptor.setCompressedReadAheadBufferSizeInKb(0);
+            assertEquals(0, DatabaseDescriptor.getCompressedReadAheadBufferSizeInKB());
+            assertEquals(0, DatabaseDescriptor.getCompressedReadAheadBufferSize());
+
+            Assertions.assertThatThrownBy(() -> DatabaseDescriptor.setCompressedReadAheadBufferSizeInKb(255))
+                      .isInstanceOf(IllegalArgumentException.class)
+                      .hasMessage("compressed_read_ahead_buffer_size_in_kb must be at least 256KiB (set to 0 to disable)");
+
+            DatabaseDescriptor.setCompressedReadAheadBufferSizeInKb(256);
+            assertEquals(256, DatabaseDescriptor.getCompressedReadAheadBufferSizeInKB());
+        }
+        finally
+        {
+            DatabaseDescriptor.setCompressedReadAheadBufferSizeInKb(original);
+        }
+    }
 }