[6] The general region of Great Perm was known as wisu (ويسو) 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.

[2] The Komi territories "along the Kama River" in the south were first mentioned under the year 1324 in the chronicle of Novgorod when describing the last trip of Yury of Moscow to the Golden Horde.

Mikhail recognized the suzerainty of the grand prince of Moscow, but refused to participate in the Russo-Kazan War of 1467–1469 during the reign of Ivan III.

[9] The first attempt at Christianizing the Komi-Permyaks in 1455 ended in failure, as the Russian bishop of Perm, Pitirim [ru], was killed by the Mansi during a raid.

[11] The next grand prince, Vasily III, issued the Great Perm Charter the same year which set the powers of the governor.

[12] Up to the early 18th century, the name Great Perm was officially used of the Upper Kama area, a southern part of which was governed by the Stroganov family.

The name was borrowed (as the 'Permian' period) by the nineteenth century geologist Sir Roderick Murchison to refer to rocks of a certain age, following extensive studies which he conducted in the region.