Kadran parşömene çizilmişti.

The dial was drawn on the parchment.

Breakdown of Kadran parşömene çizilmişti.

• çizmek: to draw
• kadran: a dial
• parşömen: a parchment; scroll

Questions & Answers about Kadran parşömene çizilmişti.

Why is parşömene in the -e / -a form instead of parşömende?

Because Turkish often uses the dative case -e / -a with some verbs where English would use on, onto, or sometimes to.

Here, parşömene çizilmek means something like to be drawn on/onto parchment. So parşömene is not literally just to the parchment in an English sense; it is the normal Turkish way to mark the surface or target for the drawing in this expression.

• parşömen = parchment
• parşömene = onto/on the parchment

In more explicit Turkish, you might also see:

• parşömen üzerine çizilmişti = it had been drawn onto/on top of the parchment

So parşömene is idiomatic and natural here.

What does çizilmişti mean grammatically?

Çizilmişti is made of:

• çiz- = draw
• -il- = passive
• -miş = reported/inferred past participle-type form
• -ti = past of idi

Together, çizilmişti usually means had been drawn.

So this is a passive past perfect / pluperfect-type form:

• çizilmişti = it had been drawn

It describes something that was already completed before another past point in time.