Great Perm
The origin of the name "Perm" is uncertain. While the city of Perm is a modern foundation named for Permia, the town of Cherdyn was reportedly itself known as "Great Perm" in the past. Cherdyn acted as a central market town, and it is sometimes suggested that "perm" was simply a term for "merchants" or "market" in a local language, but there have been other suggestions. The same name is likely reflected in the toponym Bjarmaland in Norse sagas. The general region of Great Perm was known as "wisu" (وِيسُو "wīsū") in medieval Arab ethnography, so referred to in the works of Ahmad ibn Fadlan, Al-Gharnati, Zakariya al-Qazwini and Yaqut al-Hamawi (in his "Dictionary of Countries"). The term is perhaps derived from the name of the "Ves"' people who settled around Lake Ladoga and the upper Sukhona River.