diff --git a/docs/source/backends.rst b/docs/source/backends.rst
index d297b19..7e48678 100644
--- a/docs/source/backends.rst
+++ b/docs/source/backends.rst
@@ -325,3 +325,47 @@ so again just the ``backend`` keyword needs to be supplied:
            [-462.52362  , -121.12659  ,  -67.84769  ,  624.5455   ],
            [   5.2839584,   36.44155  ,   81.62852  ,  703.15784  ]],
           dtype=float32)
+
+
+Contracting arbitrary objects
+=============================
+
+There is one more explicit backend that can handle arbitrary arrays of objects,
+so long the *objects themselves* just support multiplication and addition (
+``__mul__`` and ``__add__`` dunder methods respectively). Use it by supplying
+``backend='object'``.
+
+For example, imagine we want to perform a contraction of arrays made up of
+`sympy <www.sympy.org>`_ symbols:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+  >>> import opt_einsum as oe
+  >>> import numpy as np
+  >>> import sympy
+
+  >>> # define the symbols
+  >>> a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l = [sympy.symbols(oe.get_symbol(i)) for i in range(12)]
+  >>> a * b + c * d
+  𝑎𝑏+𝑐𝑑
+
+  >>> # define the tensors (you might explicitly specify ``dtype=object``)
+  >>> X = np.array([[a, b], [c, d]])
+  >>> Y = np.array([[e, f], [g, h]])
+  >>> Z = np.array([[i, j], [k, l]])
+
+  >>> # contract the tensors!
+  >>> oe.contract('uv,vw,wu->u', X, Y, Z, backend='object')
+  array([i*(a*e + b*g) + k*(a*f + b*h), j*(c*e + d*g) + l*(c*f + d*h)],
+        dtype=object)
+
+There are a few things to note here:
+
+* The returned array is a ``numpy.ndarray`` but since it has ``dtype=object``
+  it can really hold *any* python objects
+* We had to explicitly use ``backend='object'``, since :func:`numpy.einsum`
+  would have otherwise been dispatched to, which can't handle ``dtype=object``
+  (though :func:`numpy.tensordot` in fact can)
+* Although an optimized pairwise contraction order is used, the looping in each
+  single contraction is **performed in python so performance will be
+  drastically lower than for numeric dtypes!**
diff --git a/opt_einsum/backends/dispatch.py b/opt_einsum/backends/dispatch.py
index 85a6ceb..f5777ae 100644
--- a/opt_einsum/backends/dispatch.py
+++ b/opt_einsum/backends/dispatch.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import importlib
 
 import numpy
 
+from . import object_arrays
 from . import cupy as _cupy
 from . import jax as _jax
 from . import tensorflow as _tensorflow
@@ -49,6 +50,10 @@ _cached_funcs = {
     ('tensordot', 'numpy'): numpy.tensordot,
     ('transpose', 'numpy'): numpy.transpose,
     ('einsum', 'numpy'): numpy.einsum,
+    # also pre-populate with the arbitrary object backend
+    ('tensordot', 'object'): numpy.tensordot,
+    ('transpose', 'object'): numpy.transpose,
+    ('einsum', 'object'): object_arrays.object_einsum,
 }
 
 
diff --git a/opt_einsum/backends/object_arrays.py b/opt_einsum/backends/object_arrays.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b394e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/opt_einsum/backends/object_arrays.py
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+"""
+Functions for performing contractions with array elements which are objects.
+"""
+
+import numpy as np
+import functools
+import operator
+
+
+def object_einsum(eq, *arrays):
+    """A ``einsum`` implementation for ``numpy`` arrays with object dtype.
+    The loop is performed in python, meaning the objects themselves need
+    only to implement ``__mul__`` and ``__add__`` for the contraction to be
+    computed. This may be useful when, for example, computing expressions of
+    tensors with symbolic elements, but note it will be very slow when compared
+    to ``numpy.einsum`` and numeric data types!
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    eq : str
+        The contraction string, should specify output.
+    arrays : sequence of arrays
+        These can be any indexable arrays as long as addition and
+        multiplication is defined on the elements.
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    out : numpy.ndarray
+        The output tensor, with ``dtype=object``.
+    """
+
+    # when called by ``opt_einsum`` we will always be given a full eq
+    lhs, output = eq.split('->')
+    inputs = lhs.split(',')
+
+    sizes = {}
+    for term, array in zip(inputs, arrays):
+        for k, d in zip(term, array.shape):
+            sizes[k] = d
+
+    out_size = tuple(sizes[k] for k in output)
+    out = np.empty(out_size, dtype=object)
+
+    inner = tuple(k for k in sizes if k not in output)
+    inner_size = tuple(sizes[k] for k in inner)
+
+    for coo_o in np.ndindex(*out_size):
+
+        coord = dict(zip(output, coo_o))
+
+        def gen_inner_sum():
+            for coo_i in np.ndindex(*inner_size):
+                coord.update(dict(zip(inner, coo_i)))
+                locs = (tuple(coord[k] for k in term) for term in inputs)
+                elements = (array[loc] for array, loc in zip(arrays, locs))
+                yield functools.reduce(operator.mul, elements)
+
+        out[coo_o] = functools.reduce(operator.add, gen_inner_sum())
+
+    return out

diff --git a/opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py b/opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py
index 905d2ba..2c05f35 100644
--- a/opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py
+++ b/opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py
@@ -431,3 +431,25 @@ def test_auto_backend_custom_array_no_tensordot():
     # Shaped is an array-like object defined by opt_einsum - which has no TDOT
     assert infer_backend(x) == 'opt_einsum'
     assert parse_backend([x], 'auto') == 'numpy'
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("string", tests)
+def test_object_arrays_backend(string):
+    views = helpers.build_views(string)
+    ein = contract(string, *views, optimize=False, use_blas=False)
+    assert ein.dtype != object
+
+    shps = [v.shape for v in views]
+    expr = contract_expression(string, *shps, optimize=True)
+
+    obj_views = [view.astype(object) for view in views]
+
+    # try raw contract
+    obj_opt = contract(string, *obj_views, backend='object')
+    assert obj_opt.dtype == object
+    assert np.allclose(ein, obj_opt.astype(float))
+
+    # test expression
+    obj_opt = expr(*obj_views, backend='object')
+    assert obj_opt.dtype == object
+    assert np.allclose(ein, obj_opt.astype(float))

Potential bug (outer tensor product)
This works...:

```python
>>> import mpmath
>>> import numpy
>>> m0 = numpy.eye(2)
>>> opt_einsum.contract('bc,ad->abcd', m0, m0)
array([[[[1., 0.], ...)
```

...but this breaks:

```python
>>> m1 = m0 + mpmath.mpc(0)
>>> opt_einsum.contract('bc,ad->abcd', m1, m1)
Traceback (most recent call last): (...)
TypeError: invalid data type for einsum
```

However, using opt_einsum with mpmath is otherwise OK in principle:

```python
>>> opt_einsum.contract('bc,cd->bd', m1, m1)
array([[mpc(real='1.0', imag='0.0'), mpc(real='0.0', imag='0.0')],
       [mpc(real='0.0', imag='0.0'), mpc(real='1.0', imag='0.0')]],
      dtype=object)
```
opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py::test_object_arrays_backend[ab,bc->ca] opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py::test_object_arrays_backend[abc,bcd,dea] opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py::test_object_arrays_backend[abc,def->fedcba] opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py::test_object_arrays_backend[abc,bcd,df->fa] opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py::test_object_arrays_backend[ijk,ikj] opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py::test_object_arrays_backend[i,j->ij] opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py::test_object_arrays_backend[ijk,k->ij] opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py::test_object_arrays_backend[AB,BC->CA]
opt_einsum/tests/test_backends.py::test_auto_backend_custom_array_no_tensordot