Kadran parşömene çizilmişti.

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.

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.

The verb is passive because the sentence focuses on the thing drawn rather than the person who drew it.

• çizmek = to draw
• çizilmek = to be drawn

So:

• Kadran parşömene çizilmişti. = The dial had been drawn on the parchment.

The sentence does not say who drew it. That is either unknown, unimportant, or understood from context.

The subject is kadran.

That is because the verb is passive:

• Kadran ... çizilmişti. = The dial ... had been drawn.

So kadran is the thing that underwent the action.

Turkish does not normally have a definite article like English the.

So kadran can mean:

• a dial
• the dial

Which one is meant depends on context.

In this sentence, English will often translate it as the dial because it sounds like a specific object already known in the context.

This is an important difference.

• çizildi = was drawn
• çizilmişti = had been drawn

So:

• çizildi gives a simple past event.
• çizilmişti tells you the drawing was already completed before another past event or moment.

For example:

• Kapıyı açtığımda kadran parşömene çizildi.
  This sounds like the dial was drawn at that past time.

• Kapıyı açtığımda kadran parşömene çizilmişti.
  This means when I opened the door, the dial had already been drawn on the parchment.

Not necessarily by itself in this sentence.

The suffix -miş often has meanings like:

• reported information
• inference
• realization
• non-witnessed past

But in çizilmişti, the form is part of a larger structure: -miş + ti. In many contexts, this works mainly as a past perfect form: had been drawn.

Depending on context, it can still carry a slight sense of it turned out that it had been drawn or it was apparently already drawn, but the main practical meaning here is usually had been drawn.

Because the noun takes the dative ending -e.

• base form: parşömen
• dative: parşömen + e
• result: parşömene

There is no unusual sound change here. Turkish just adds the case suffix.

The suffix is -e rather than -a because of vowel harmony:

• the last vowel in parşömen is e
• so the dative suffix is -e

Yes. Turkish word order is flexible, although the neutral order often puts the verb at the end.

The original sentence:

• Kadran parşömene çizilmişti.

Possible variations:

• Parşömene kadran çizilmişti.
• Çizilmişti kadran parşömene. (poetic or marked, not the most neutral)

The original version is natural and straightforward. Changing the order usually changes focus or emphasis, not the core meaning.

Yes. A learner may often wonder about this.

You could say:

• Kadran parşömen üzerine çizilmişti.
• Kadran parşömenin üzerine çizilmişti.

These make the idea of on top of / onto the surface of the parchment more explicit.

Compared with parşömene çizilmişti, forms with üzerine can feel a bit more literal or descriptive. The original sentence is still perfectly normal and concise.

Yes, kadran is a real Turkish word, but its exact meaning depends on context.

It can refer to things like:

• a dial
• a clock face
• an instrument face
• sometimes a quadrant in technical or historical contexts

So a learner may need context to know exactly what object is meant. The grammar of the sentence does not change either way.

To make it active, you would need to mention who did the drawing.

For example:

• Biri kadranı parşömene çizmişti. = Someone had drawn the dial on the parchment.
• Usta kadranı parşömene çizmişti. = The master had drawn the dial on the parchment.

Notice the difference:

Passive:

• Kadran parşömene çizilmişti.

Active:

• Biri kadranı parşömene çizmişti.

In the active sentence, kadran becomes kadranı because it is now the direct object.

Because in this sentence kadran is not the object; it is the subject of a passive verb.

Compare:

Passive:

• Kadran parşömene çizilmişti.
  Here kadran is the thing that was drawn.

Active:

• Biri kadranı parşömene çizmişti.
  Here kadranı is the direct object of çizmişti.

So the lack of -ı / -i / -u / -ü is a clue that this sentence is passive, not active.