In all the games I've played except one, the Spanish always come out on top, and the only thing that keeps them from expanding across north africa is me. That said, in my campaign as the Almohads, I managed to completly wipe out Spain by 1100.

Edit: It actually took me a little longer than that to defeat the Spanish- I'm thinking of my french campaign where I pushed the English completly off the continent by 1100.