I would love to see the numbers around this but my expectation is that the maintenance would be more than adequately covered by all the various pilgrim taxes and fees.
I just finished reading One Thousand Roads to Mecca and before ~1930's the main source of revenue for Hijaz tribes and custodians was the hajj. This is indeed why the tribes fought over the custodianship, not because of any religious motivations. The whole hijazi economy was based around pilgrims, much like pre-islamic Meccan society. Its also interesting how a couple of hajji's in the book describe the arabian tribes as nominal muslims. i.e. this raiding and killing during hajj time was a cultural phenomena. In fact, turns out the Ottomans used to pay off the tribes from hajj proceeds to stop the killings during this time. This changed only after discovery of oil. Offtopic, I know :)
However, I do agree with your overall point - it would be pretty difficult to implement this joint custodianship. I mean the muslim governments have been busy over past 100 years destroying each other with the help of outside forces in every single decade so how can that suddenly change?
Thank you for your response. The thing is, Ibn Jubayr only mentions it so Im pretty sure it was there way before, presumably when Umm Salima passed away. Also some other comments pointed out the grave of prophet mohammed right inside the mosque as well so there's that.
I'm not sure either on what the deal is. At least one scholar mentioned how the hadith of Ali saying to level graves was meant for the pre-islamic shrines dotting the area. I'd be curious to read more about this as its fascinating to me. This is why I posted it as I thought for sure someone could pull out a book or historic blurb with details on this. Perhaps other accounts in the book im reading will also mention this or other shrines.
Thanks for your comment. I didnt know but just ordered One Thousand Roads to Mecca which has her writings about her experience.
Do you know where I can find out more about her? Amazon seems to have very little with her as an author.